VOLUME 53 / No. 1 Monroe Township, New Jersey January …todians who received a 1.2% increase....

of the three-year contract negotiated with High Tech for those services.

There are no salary in-creases, except for our cus-todians who received a 1.2% increase.

Employee health benefits will go up by 6.7%.

Several contracts will go up for North Gate personnel, for the nurses, and for pest control.

A number of fees are being increased to provide an an-ticipated $116,428 in addi-tional income for 2017:

Lease processing for rentals,

Mortgage questionnaires,

Resale inspections,

pool fees,

Clubhouse room rentals,

Resale inspections, and

Golf memberships (but not cart memberships).

Any homeowner who would like more specifics can get a copy of the Operating and Capital Budget for 2017 at the Village Center.

Our auditors, Wilken and Guttenplan, have issued the opinion that Rossmoor is in financially stable condition.

By Carol De Haan

At their November 17 meeting, the Board of Gover-nors adopted the Proposed 2017 Operating and Capital Budgets resolution. It pro-vides for a total net RCAI budget in the amount of $5,179,272.

The budget includes an increase of $5.92 per manor per month for the coming year. Due to recent harsh winters and being under-budgeted in the Snow Con-trol Cost Center, RCAI ended the past two years with defi-cits that were offset by Work-ing Capital. This left a very low balance in that account of approximately $250,000. The RCAI outside auditor has recommended that our Work-ing Capital Account should be around $500,000, based on the size of the RCAI budget. We need to make an effort to rebuild this item.

It should be noted that the 2017 budget includes no in-crease in our pool contract.

Further, not only is there no increase in landscaping and snow removal, but we have saved over $400,000 beginning in 2016, because

VOLUME 53 / No. 1 Monroe Township, New Jersey January 2017

PRSRT STD ECRWSS

U.S. Postage PAID

EDDM Retail Monroe Twp., NJ

08831

HHHAPPYAPPYAPPY, H, H, HEALTHYEALTHYEALTHY NNNEWEWEW YYYEAREAREAR TOTOTO AAALLLLLL!!!

By Sal Gurriero, Chairman

I would like to thank the following people for their dedicated service to the Thanksgiving Dinner Pro-gram for Rossmoor 2016:

Mr. and Mrs. Joe Conti Mr. and Mrs. Lou Russo

Mr. Ron Haas and

Members of the Interfaith Council of Rossmoor

Also, a thank you to all the volunteers who gave of their

By Jean Houvener

The October Emerald So-ciety meeting was a beehive of activity before the meeting began. Members were sign-ing up for trips, dues were being paid, plans were being made. Founded in 1992, the Emerald Society’s motto is “Loyalty, Friendship, Love.” The Emerald Society meets on the fourth Wednesday of the month at 2 p.m. in the Ballroom. The dues are $15 for the year beginning in January. This very reason-able fee covers obligations of the Club for insurance, but also provides for entertain-ment and refreshments at the meetings. This large club has 275 members, including three new members in Octo-ber.

President Dan Jolly began the meeting with a salute to the flag and a prayer to re-member those who are re-

cently deceased and those who are serving our country in the armed forces. Minutes from the prior meeting were read by Secretary Joan Avery. Treasurer Marge Prin-ciotta reported on the Club’s finances. Plans for the rest of the year included a Hallow-

2017 RCAI Budget has been approved

Thank you to Interfaith Council for Thanksgiving dinners

Bits & Pieces ................... 2

Bob’s Almanac .............. 10

Clubs ............................ 14

Governors’ Meeting ........ 2

Health Care Center ....... 20

Landscaping ................. 20

Maintenance ................. 20

Musings ........................ 12

New Neighbors ............. 12

RCAI Meetings ............... 2

Religion ........................ 18

Sports ........................... 17

Transportation

Tidbits ....................... 23

Inside this issue

een party and a December Holiday party. A trip to Lan-caster, Pa., for the Christmas show and dinner and a trip to the Sands Casino were an-nounced. The Club recently donated $200 to the Alz-heimer’s Foundation. At this

(Continued on page 17)

Focus on: Groups and Clubs

Emerald Society: fun, food, and trips

A night scene of Old Nassau and Waverly lights

Clubhouse mantel

time and efforts to make this day a success for those nearly 60 residents and aides who received the Thanksgiving Day dinners.

I am sure I speak for all the homebound residents and their aides who were able to enjoy and have a happy Thanksgiving dinner that could not have taken place without all your help! Again, Thanks to all.

Holiday Peace Greetings

2 JANUARY 2017 The Rossmoor NEWS

News Board:

Joe Conti, Chair Carol De Haan Myra Danon Bob Huber Jean Houvenir Anne Rotholz Linda Bozowski Walter Gryskiewicz

Editorial Assistants Alex Monaco Linda Monaco

The Rossmoor News a monthly periodical is mailed to every home within the Rossmoor community. News items are welcome. Appropriate

news items from outside organizations will be considered as space permits. All copy and pictures are subject to editing and are accepted with this understanding.

Letters to the Editor must be emailed to PES at [email protected] and clearly marked Rossmoor News.

Editorial Office: 2 Rossmoor Drive, Monroe Twp., NJ 08831

E-mail: [email protected]

wanis Citizen of the Year award.

gm The Board of Governors

approved the Maintenance Department Standard Oper-ating Procedure regarding service interruption at the East and South Gates.


approved the 2017 Pool Rules and Regulations.

gm The Reserve Study set

aside $60,000 for refurbish-ment of the Common Facili-ties in 2016. The Board of Governors approved a reso-lution for the replacement/refurbishment of the follow-ing: paint the interior of the Health Care Center including the doctor’s side, reception area and nurse’s side; paint the interior of the North Gate office and booth; replace the reception slider in the Health Care Center; remove the cove molding prior to paint-ing and replace with new in the Health Care Center; re-place the emergency door and overhang at the Health Care Center; replace the car-pet in the North Gate office and booth; renovate the bathroom in the North Gate office; remove all the old mis-matched and patched panel-ing and install sheetrock in the North Gate office at a total cost of $29,600 includ-ing installation, sales tax and 20% contingency. The ex-penditure will be charged to the RCAI Replacement Fund Account.


approved a resolution to adopt the 2017 RCAI Operat-ing and Capital Budget

gm The RCAI Reserve Study

funded for the anticipated expenditure of resurfacing Springfield Way, Gloucester Way, Troy Way, Sheldon Way and Sutton Lane; pave-ment reconstructions; con-crete flush curb/curb and

As I start my 73rd column for the Rossmoor News, I wonder what to write about. Will I repeat myself? Will it be interesting? It is hard coming up with a different topic each month AND get-ting it in before deadline. It’s not like I’m retired and have nothing to do but piece to-gether so many words into a cohesive essay. But, here I am, at the eleventh hour (literally!) typing up some-thing for your perusal.

How should I start the New Year? I could do a diatribe on common courtesy; that might be nice. The impor-tance of keeping New Year’s resolutions? Piffle. How about something that fits New Jersey to a T?

A topic of conversation around the office lately is how we New Jerseyans pronounce our state capitol, Trenton. It seems we half-way or softly pronounce the second t and eliminate the following vowel altogether: “Tren(t)’n.” Outside the state, and around the globe, we observed that the capitol is pronounced Tren-Ton.

Besides Trenton, we thought of other words, too, that have an inner t fol-lowed by a syllable ending with the letter n: Fountain, mountain, carton, curtain, certain, kitten, button, (Gary) Morton, Horton (Hears a Who), and Sutton (Way). It is important to note that, in these words, the first syllable, or the one ending with a t, is accented.

Then there’s aborted, de-ported, departed, comported, retorted, reported, and re-sorted – they are also pro-nounced with a soft t, or, like the letter d. Come to think of it words like court, sort, dart, part, Burt, curt, dirt, spurt, shirt, and flirt all end with the soft t sound…if you are from New Jersey!

But, words like pertain, captain, and detain all retain the hard t sound because the accent is on the second syl-lable.

Trenton is not the only city with a pronunciation prob-lem. Only in New Jersey is Newark pronounced New-erk. Elsewhere, it is New-Ark, like the town in Dela-ware.

Dialects are funny. I’ll bet you’ve never really listened to yourself speak. Not until one casual conversation did I really hear myself.

But, my voice is my voice, and I will not change it. “I’m from Joisey.” No, I am not. I am from New Jersey. And proud of it.

Trentn, TrenTon. Potato, Potahto. Pork roll, Taylor Ham…Oh, sorry, that’s an-other conversation alto-gether.

You want to get a cawfee and tawk about it?

B&P “To correct an English-

man’s pronunciation is to imply that he is not quite a gentleman.” – George Ber-nard Shaw (Irish literary critic, playwright and essay-ist. 1925 Nobel Prize for Lit-erature, 1856-1950)

meeting. The Board of Gov-ernors approved a resolution requiring the Agenda Com-mittee meet the first Thurs-day of the month and is au-thorized to determine whether or not any of the Standing Committees should meet that month.

gm The RCAI negotiations

team, the Union representa-tive, and the shop stewards, agreed to the following: no increase in hourly wages, except the custodian hourly rate will increase 1.2%; in-crease in the two-day week-

The deadline for The Rossmoor News

is the 7th of every month.

Bits & Pieces Sue Ortiz

Open RCAI Meetings in January Thursday, Jan. 5 ............... Agenda Committee ..................... 10 a.m.

Thursday, Jan. 12 ............. Maintenance Committee* .............. 9 a.m.

Thursday, Jan. 12 .............. Community Affairs Committee* .

Thursday, Jan. 12 ............. Finance Committee*

Thursday, Jan. 19 ...................... Board of Governors....................... 9 a.m.

All meetings are held in the Village Center Meeting Room *These meetings will run one after another, no longer an hour apart.

Daniel Jolly, RCAI presi-dent, opened the Board of Governors meeting at 9 a.m. with the Pledge of Alle-giance.

gm Guest speaker William

Daly of Allen & Stults gave a presentation on the renewal of the Union and Non-Union employee health insurance plans, the renewal of the cur-rent Dental, Life/AD&D and Long Term Disability con-tracts for the non-union em-ployees and the renewal of the current Dental and Life/AD&D contracts for the union employees. The Board of Governors approved a reso-lution to renew the Ameri-Health Insurance Plan for the RCAI union and non-union employees. The Board of Governors approved a reso-lution to renew the current Dental, Life/AD&D and Long Term Disability contracts with MetLife for the non-union employees. The Board of Governors approved a reso-lution to renew the current Dental and Life/AD&D con-tract for the union employ-ees.

gm Vincent Marino, Jr. re-

ported on the resolution vot-ing outcome of the Mainte-nance Committee. Barbara Krysiak gave the report from the Community Affairs Com-mittee and reported on the resolution voting outcome. She stated that the Commit-tee approved the 2017 Pool Rules and Regulations. Ge-rald McQuade reported that there is a year-to-date b u d g e t s u r p l u s o f $189,769.58, which is $128,159.11 better than budget, and stated the Fi-nance Committee recom-mended the resolutions brought before them. Peter Kaznosky reported on the resolution voting outcome of the Golf Course Committee.


opposed managing the Ki-

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gutter replacement; common facility sidewalk replacement; and storm inlet reconstruc-tion in 2017. The Board of Governors approved a reso-lution to engage the services of FWH Associates to con-duct a pavement assessment and prepare specifications not to exceed $12,300. The expenditure will be charged to the RCAI Capital Replace-ment Fund Account.

gm The 2017 RCAI Capital

budget set aside $41,800 to purchase a new S450 Bob-cat with a bucket and plow and a snow pusher box for the backhoe. The Board of Governors approved a reso-lution to purchase a new Bobcat and snow removal equipment at a cost not to exceed $41,800. The expen-diture will be charged to the RCAI Capital Expenditures Fund Account.

gm The 2017 RCAI Capital

Budget set aside $38,500 to purchase a GMC 2500 Sa-vanna van. The Board of Governors approved a reso-lution to purchase a GMC 2500 Savanna van equipped with interior bin system and roof rack at a cost not to ex-ceed $38,216. The expendi-ture will be charged to the RCAI Capital Expenditures Fund Account.


expressed interest in requir-ing the Agenda Committee to meet the first Thursday of the month to determine whether or not any of the Standing Committees should meet that month. The Agenda Commit-tee meetings shall be open to all directors, alternates and residents. The Standing Committee meetings will be-gin at 9 a.m. the second Thursday of the month start-ing with the Maintenance Committee, the Community Affairs Committee and the Finance Committee with a 10 minute recess between each

end standby pay from $55 per day to $60 per day; no changes in the employees’ contributions to the health care premiums; and contribu-tions to the Union pension plan to remain the same as the first year of the Agree-ment. The Board of Gover-nors approved a resolution that the Hourly Wages, Em-ployee Benefits (Health Care Coverage, Dental and Life/AD&D) and Employee Con-tributions; and Contributions to the Union Pension Plan as described above shall com-mence January 1, 2017.


when her parents moved to Westchester, N.Y., where her father was employed as the valet for the ambassador to Turkey. While still in Swit-zerland, Irene met and mar-ried Herman Lippert, a suc-cessful landscape designer. In 1957, Irene, Herman, and


By Linda Bozowski

As I went through the list-ing of potential writing topics for this month’s newspaper, I was struck by the “New Year’s Resolution” tone of many of them. Among the month-long events or mind-sets to be acknowledged in January are Be Kind to Food Servers, Get a Balanced Life, Get Organized, and Na-tional Clean Off Your Desk Day. Perhaps after you’ve cleaned off your desk, you could follow the directive to Organize Your Home Day. Or if you have some free time and are so inclined, you could Dress Up Your Pet on the 14

th.

Those who wish to expand their horizons and learn something new might follow the suggestion to Learn Your Name in Morse Code on January 11. Athletes among us might follow the sugges-tion to Learn to Ski and

January – a month for good intentions

From Bremerhaven to Rahway –

a memorable journey

Snowboard, while nutrition-ists may choose to try to Rid the World of Fad Diets and Gimmicks, which is part of Health Weight Week. I’ll bet Bob Huber and other feline lovers will do their best to Answer your cat’s Questions on January 22. I don’t know anyone who would Talk like a Grizzled Prospector on the 24

th, but if you know some-

one, please wish that person a pleasant day.

January is also National Mail-Order Gardening Month, National Mentoring Month, National Volunteer Blood Donor Month, and Train Your Dog Month. How are we supposed to find time to accomplish all of these tasks and still get around to cleaning off our desks? Plus, Nat ional Fresh Squeezed Juice Week oc-curs mid-month. Maybe we could serve the juice during the Super Bowl (whenever

that is). In case you received one,

you can dispose of your un-wanted fruitcake on Fruit-cake Toss Day, which is le-gitimized on the 7

th.

Someday We’ll Laugh About This Week is cele-brated between January 2 to 8. Maybe we could move that event to the end of the month. In the meantime, try your best to Make Your Dream Come True on Janu-ary 13. Happy New Year.

By Linda Bozowski

To many residents, the story of Irene Lippert’s life in Germany during World War II and her success in the U.S. as a cook is not news. Bob Huber wrote a detailed chro-nology in 2008 for the Ross-moor News. I spent several delightful hours with Irene the other day, and for those who may not know her story, I’ll be happy to share some of it with you.

Irene, who will celebrate her 85th birthday on January 23, was born in a seven-home village in East Ger-many. She spent her early years in Bremerhaven and lived through the bombings and reconstruction of that city during and after the war. Her early interests were in jewelry design and fabrica-tion, and later, in photogra-phy. The high school that she attended offered training courses in these disciplines and Irene was able to ad-vance her skills. Her photog-raphy talents enabled her to be partnered with a mentor who took her on photo shoots. Since new merchant ships were being constructed in Bremerhaven, Irene’s mentor was engaged to shoot photos of their con-struction. Irene went to the construction site each day and shot photos for the ship-building company.

Her unhappy teenage mar-riage to a soldier who went on to become a successful banker ended in divorce, and her young son remained in the care of his father. Irene moved with her family to Switzerland in the mid-fifties. Her parents had long been successful in the hospitality industry and urged her to attend culinary school in Lausanne. Her two-year pro-gram at the school included two out-of-area externships, one in St. Moritz and one in Lucerne. Irene stayed on in Switzerland to finish school

Irene Lippert


people you see every day.” When I initially reached out

to Sally, Joe and Akiko, they were each aquaintances I had met through church. Af-ter spending some time in their homes listening to their stories, I consider each a friend.

I now know that if I need wise counsel on church mat-ters or a fail-proof recipe, I can call Sally. If I’d like a cup of exquisite Japanese green tea and an international tale or two, I can call Akiko. And I am honored to be among the select group that Joe wel-comes each Sunday with a huge smile and a big hug.

January is International Quality of Life month. Why not encourage a friend or some-one you just met to tell you about his or her life. Then sit back and listen. It will enhance the quality of your life. It cer-tainly has mine.

By Mary Jane Brubaker

Over the last few months, I have had the privilege of in-terviewing three long-term residents for profiles I was writing for the church news-letter and this newspaper.

Listening to the stories of these marvelous people, gourmand extraordinaire Sally Rowland, World War II veteran Joseph Schneider, and Nagasaki bomb survivor Akiko Seitelbach, was trans-formative for me. I found each so compelling I rarely had to call upon my journalis-tic training. All I had to do was ask them to tell me about their lives and then sit back and listen.

That being said, listening is a vastly underutilized skill yet it can yield invaluable bene-fits. According to freelance writer Robert Brault, “One way to meet new people is to listen more carefully to the

their two little boys moved to East Meadow, Long Island, where Herman was engaged as the landscape and garden designer for a housing devel-opment.

Neither Irene nor Herman spoke English, but Irene was able to learn enough to get by from her neighbors and from her toddler sons. She took a job as a waitress at a Howard Johnson restaurant in Roslyn, Long Island. In 1958 Irene’s dad saw an ad-vertisement in the paper for a landscaping opportunity in Sussex County. Herman in-terviewed for the position and was engaged as the head landscaper and de-signer for a new housing de-velopment. Irene and her family moved into a seven-bedroom house on a country road, where they lived for nearly 20 years. Their daughter Donna was born shortly after the young family relocated to New Jersey.

In order to help their fam-ily’s financial situation, Irene began to look for a job. Al-though her part-time catering business was successful, she felt a more permanent job would be more beneficial to her family. She ended up interviewing for a position as a corrections officer, since the pay was higher than that available for other positions. After completing her inter-view in Trenton, she chose to work at the Rahway prison, nearly an hour away from her home in Sussex County. Af-ter a difficult interview and many difficult encounters with residents/inmates and administration, Irene was able to become settled in as the first female corrections officer in New Jersey. In these days, her treatment would be viewed as discrimi-natory, since she was har-assed. Being the strong per-son that she is, she rolled with the punches and man-aged to perform well in her position. Rahway was a men-only facility, and sex offend-ers were housed there with other offenders. She earned the respect of her administra-tors and was offered the po-sition of food service director after her three-year stint as an officer.

(Continued from page 3)

From Bremerhaven

Listen Up: A tip for enhancing the quality of your life

REMEMBER OUR MEN AND WOMEN

IN THE SERVICE

Although Irene started out as food manager at Rahway, she was quickly elevated to Regional Director of Food Services and was responsi-ble for all food services at nine facilities. Food services were not given much atten-tion with New Jersey’s prison system, and nutritional needs were not satisfied. Irene was able to rework all of the meal plans, ensuring that ade-quate nutrition was provided and that foods were tasty and attractive. Residents with special dietary needs, e.g., diabetics, those with food allergies, and those with religious restrictions had their needs taken into account in the foods that were offered. Efforts were made to provide meals that offered reason-able calorie counts, reduced sodium and sugar, and ade-quate fruits and vegetables, while adhering to budgetary limitations. Although nine facilities were being serviced, most of the food preparation was performed at a separate location in Rahway and food was transported to the other facilities.

Irene also saw the kitchen as a potential training ground for inmates interested in learning food preparation. She set up a two-year train-ing program and, working with the Union County Voca-tional Department and the Federal Department of Edu-cation, was able to put to-gether a curriculum that, when completed, offered a Food Service Certification designating the graduates as certified chefs. Because of the circumstances of the in-mates, not all who were in-terested were able to apply to the program, only those who were considered less dangerous. There were also limitations on the hardware available in the kitchen – for

instances, knives were not available. Irene was able to develop a work-around for that deficiency and the stu-dents did learn how to chop and mince. The program was recognized by the American Food Service Operators As-sociation, and Irene was awarded the Operator of the Year award shortly after set-ting up her program in Rah-way. She went on to become president of the organization and helped set up similar programs in other states. Among the states that have culinary training programs are Florida, Georgia, Illinois, California, and others. Sadly, the program in New Jersey has been greatly weakened since Irene retired in 2000. Irene very proudly told me that all of “her” graduates who have been released from prison have gained em-ployment in the food service industry, thanks in part to their valued credentials.

The mother of four (Werner, Peter, Maurice, and Donna), grandmother of eight, and great-grandmother of three, spends her days enjoying jazz and classical music. Attending concerts, traveling with friends into New York, and enjoying some of the trips sponsored by Rossmoor also fill her time. She founded Ross-moor’s German-American Club 14 years ago and serves as its president. She also presides over the New Jersey Club.

Irene shares her at-home cooking responsibilities with her son Maurice and also cooks for club and church events from time to time. Her cooking preferences lean toward savory, not sweet. Although she hasn’t yet writ-ten a cookbook, perhaps someday she’ll honor us with one.


and National Guard troops to protect them during the march.

In March of 1968, King was in Memphis, Tenn., in support of black public sani-tation workers who were seeking equal and fair treat-ment. Among other things, when work was cancelled due to weather, white work-ers were paid for a full eight-hour day while black workers were only paid for a two-hour day. There had been a steady increase in threats against King’s life over the course of the strike. On April 4, 1968, King was shot while on the balcony of his hotel room in Memphis.

After the assassination, there were riots in many cit-ies, including Washington, D.C., Baltimore, Louisville, and Kansas City, the very opposite of what King would have wanted. Lyndon John-son declared April 7 a day of mourning. In Memphis, the city quickly settled the strike by the sanitation workers, on terms favorable to the strik-ing workers. At his funeral Mahalia Jackson sang “Take My Hand, Precious Lord.” King wanted to be remem-bered for helping the poor,

clothing the naked, and feed-ing the hungry.

He worked tirelessly for the rights of black people, using peaceful means and non-violent methods. After his death, Congress passed the Civil Rights Act of 1968, which included the Fair Housing Act. These are only a few of the amazing things accomplished by King. At great personal risk and cost, he and those who marched with him, strove to change the laws for fairness and to guarantee the rights that are part of this country’s heritage for all citizens.

Posthumously, he was given the Presidential Medal of Freedom and the Con-gressional Gold Medal. Rep. John Conyers (D-Michigan) and Rep. Shirley Chisholm (D-New York) repeatedly submitted bills to make King’s birthday a national holiday. That finally hap-pened in 1983, in legislation signed by President Ronald Reagan, making the third Monday in January Martin Luther King, Jr. Day.

By Jean Houvener

On January 16, the nation celebrates Martin Luther King, Jr. Day in honor of the birthday of Martin Luther King, Jr., on January 15, 1929. Born into a religious family, his fa-ther was a minister at the Ebe-nezer Baptist Church in At-lanta, Ga., and his mother an active member of the church. He enjoyed singing in the choir. King was precocious, skipping two grades in school, and passing the exam to enter Morehouse College at the age of 15.

While seriously question-ing religion in his teenage years and studying sociology at Morehouse, graduating with a B.A. in 1948, by the time he was 18, he had de-cided to enter the ministry. He earned his B.Div at Crozier Theological Semi-nary in Chester, Pa., in 1951. He married Coretta Scott in 1953, and together they had four children. By 1955, he had earned his Ph.D. at Bos-ton University.

On December 1, 1955, in Montgomery, Ala., Rosa Parks, a working woman on her way home after a long day, refused to give her seat on the bus to a white person, violating the Jim Crow laws in effect there at the time. She was arrested, and ulti-mately the Montgomery Bus Boycott initiated by King and other religious leaders, lasted 385 days, and led to a national awareness of the indignities suffered by black Americans. King’s house was fire-bombed during the boycott, he was arrested dur-ing the boycott, but ultimately the court case Browder v. Gayle ended the racial seg-regation on Montgomery buses.

In 1957 King and others founded the Southern Chris-tian Leadership Conference (SCLC) to promote racial equality and justice by non-violent means in the spirit of Gandhi. The 1963 protests in Birmingham, Ala., against racial injustice and segrega-tion, resulted in the elimina-tion of many Jim Crow laws there, and the dismissal of police chief “Bull” Connors after the violent tactics used by the police against protest-ers was shown to the rest of the country. This was accom-plished with great personal danger to all the protesters.

In 1963, during the March on Washington, King made his famous “I have a dream” speech. In 1964 King was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for his efforts to use non-violence to accomplish justice and fairness. Among the accomplishments of SCLC were the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the 1965 Voting Rights Act enacted by Congress with active support from President Lyndon John-son. In 1965, King led the march from Selma, Ala., to the capitol building in Mont-gomery, Ala., in support of voting rights. Because Gov. George Wallace would not protect the marchers, Presi-dent Johnson sent in Army

Martin Luther King, Jr. Day

A Twitter’s tale By Bob Huber

A colleague called to my attention to the fact that January is Adopt a Res-cued Bird Month. This im-mediately triggered a mem-ory from long ago.

Early in my career, I worked as a copy writer at a local television station. My shift ran from 5 p.m. to 1 a.m. I worked in a large office that was bustling with activity during the day, but was a virtual morgue after 5 p.m. There were nights when I would work my en-tire shift without seeing a single soul.

One night I arrived for work to find an addition to my domain: a bird cage dangling from a floor stand. The occupant was a small parakeet who served as a prop in a commercial se-ries. These were the days before video recording when commercials were produced either live or on film. Therefore, it was de-cided to leave the bird in this office rather than cart him back and forth for his daily one-minute appear-ance. One of the women in the office was tasked with attending to his personal needs.

I felt sorry for the little follow, cooped up in that cage all the time. By the third night, I could stand it no longer. I threw caution to the wind and opened the cage door. He immediately flew out and began flying around the room. “What have I done?” I thought. “I’ll never get him back in the cage.” But, to my surprise, after three or four circles of the room, he settled down

on my typewriter and looked at me as if to say, “Well, let’s get to work,” so I did. The bird loved to ride on the carriage as it went back and forth. He would twitter happily and flap his wings every time the bell rang at the end of a line. I didn’t know his real name, so I called him “Twitter.”

In a few nights, Twitter expanded his domain. After the requisite flights around the room and a ride on the carriage, he would sit on my shoulder and examine the copy I was writing. We would have long discus-sions about this word or that word or whether the copy was worthy of broad-casting. He would indicate his approval by flapping his wings and twittering. He signaled disapproval, or boredom, by hooking his beak into my shirt collar and swinging back and forth like a pendulum.

Twitter and I became fast friends, but several weeks later I came to work one night to find that he and his cage were gone. The com-mercial series in which he starred had ended, and he returned from whence he came. He was such a happy little fellow that I’m sure he had a good home, but it’s hard to explain how much I missed him. He really was a true friend.

If you’re looking for a buddy to hang out with, cats and dogs are fine, but why not consider a little feathered creature that will fit in the palm of your hand? They make great compan-ions.


New Jersey, to be near Con-gress which was meeting in Princeton. When they invited Paine, he quickly packed a bag, closed his house in Bor-dentown, and joyfully made his way through the wooded countryside to “Rockingham,” on the Georgetown Turnpike (now Route 518).

While there, Paine told Washington an anecdote he had picked up in his travels: some people claimed that one could set water on fire.


wife were wonderful people. They did so much for Leo and me, the church, and the entire community. It was a privilege to know them,” she says. Akiko became an active mem-ber, volunteering as head usher, serving on the prayer chain, and working with the women’s auxiliary.

“I tried to play golf and I was just horrible. It frustrated my husband so much. One day, Leo and I were out playing and I swung my club. We looked at each other and we had no idea where the ball had gone. We looked all over the place. I was such a bad golfer that the last place we looked was in the hole I was aiming for. And there it was,” she says. “Leo and I just laughed and laughed over that.”

Leo developed Parkinson’s disease and went through a 10-year period of decline before he passed away. During his illness, he asked Akiko to write a book about her experiences. “Nagasaki Woman” was pub-lished in 2005.

Over the years, Akiko has been interviewed by many about her World War II experi-ences, including the BBC, Princeton University, and the University of Pennsylvania. In 2005, she was a guest speaker at the Hiroshima-Nagasaki Student Sympo-sium, in Massachusetts, con-ducted by Tufts University in association with a wide variety of sponsors and supporters including Harvard University and the City of Hiroshima.

Recently, on the occasion of Akiko’s 94

th birthday, Pastor

Dierdre Thomson led the church congregation in a rous-ing rendition of “Happy Birth-day” during Sunday service. “It was so wonderful to have eve-ryone singing and wishing me well.” She concludes, “My life has been filled with many blessings.”

How to set water on fire

By Mary Jane Brubaker

Few can lay claim to a per-sonal history with the sheer sense of drama and striking color as that of Akiko Mizuta Seitelbach. From witnessing and writing a book about the atomic bomb that devastated Nagasaki, to falling in love with and marrying the dashing American officer she met while serving as an interpreter dur-ing the Allied occupation of Japan, to modeling haute cou-ture designed by an American actress while mingling with the rich and famous in Old Town San Juan, Puerto Rico, Akiko’s life has the sweep and grandeur of a classic Holly-wood movie.

Born in Shanghai, China, in 1922, Akiko was adopted in infancy by her aunt after her mother died in childbirth. She enjoyed a privileged life as the only child of doting parents. As a 19-year old, she remembers listening to the radio and hear-ing that the Royal Japanese Navy had attacked Pearl Har-bor. “My immediate reaction was – oh my goodness. I knew how big America was and how small Japan was and I thought this was going to be bad for Japan,” she says.

On August 9, 1945, Akiko was working for Mitsubishi Electric. She walked over to the window overlooking the Nagasaki Harbor and remem-bers that “it was a beautiful day, people were walking around and the water shim-mered in the sunlight,” she says. “Suddenly, there was a blinding light and the building began to shake. Someone yelled ‘Get away from the win-dow!’ and I went under my desk as we had been taught.”

When she arose, no one was moving and the building had suffered severe damage. “I was walking around inside and felt a bright light directly on me and it was the sun – there was no longer a roof on the building,” she says.

Akiko went to the air raid shelter that had been carved into a nearby mountain. While there she helped with first aid “but it was hopeless. People were burned and bleeding and there wasn’t much we could do for them,” she says.

She left the shelter to go home. When she got outside, Nagasaki was on fire. She

says, “The only buildings still standing were those made of concrete. I had no landmarks. The area was completely deci-mated. It was very challenging to figure out how to get home, but I did eventually get there.”

Shortly thereafter the war ended. Akiko got a job as an interpreter working for the Al-lied occupation of Japan. It was then she met and married Chief Warrant Officer Leo Seitelbach and moved to Fort Hamilton in Brooklyn, N.Y. Akiko found a job as a recep-tionist for the Fuji Bank in New York.

The army soon called and Akiko and Leo were stationed in Puerto Rico for three years. Her favorite job while there was working for actress Mar-tha Sleeper (“Our Gang,” “The Bells of St. Mary’s”) who had opened a clothing boutique. When the cruise ships came into port carrying movie stars like Charlton Heston and Kay Francis, Ms. Sleeper would ask Akiko to model the bou-tique’s clothing while mingling with the guests. “Many times, I had no idea which famous person I was talking to,” says Akiko. “But I had so much fun and I sold a lot of clothes.”

After the couple’s tour of duty in Puerto Rico ended, they returned to New York where Akiko got a job as a receptionist for Kanebo, USA, Inc. She learned the ropes in about a week and asked her boss to teach her the busi-ness. She was soon replaced as the receptionist so she could focus her energy on business operations. “Things were going quite well,” she says, “and then Leo and I were ordered to go to Ger-many.” While in Germany, she got a job as an assistant librar-ian to a woman who became a lifelong friend.

Upon their return, Akiko and Leo went back to New York, where Akiko rejoined Kanebo, USA, Inc. During her more than 30 years with the com-pany she made frequent over-seas business trips and saw the rebuilding of Nagasaki and the modernization of Japan. She says, “It does not look at all like it did when I was a child.” Akiko retired at the age of 70.

In 1980, the couple moved to Rossmoor. They joined the church where they were wel-comed by Council leader Har-old Gobble. “Harold and his

By Carol De Haan

Being a widower for most of his adult life, Thomas Paine was always happy to visit his many compatriots from Revolutionary days. It meant living in a big house with a staff to cook tasty meals. It often meant ac-cess to a good library with writing paper (expensive) and ink. Most of all for so-ciable Paine, it meant intel-ligent companionship.

After the war, George and Martha Washington leased a farmhouse in Rocky Hill,

Akiko Mizuta Seitelbach: A life of many blessings

Akiko Mizuta Seitelbach


captivated by this man—one of our Founding Fathers, of course. Supposedly this was in part because Hamilton reminded Miranda of a type of man with whom he was already familiar. And indeed, this was the rapper.

The rapper? Yes, but you have to realize

that the performer, composer, and lyricist Miranda (whose 2008 Broadway show, “In the Heights,” was award-winning as well) knew something about hip-hop music and rappers. Thus, when Miranda was only about 36 pages into this mas-sive biography of Hamilton, he experienced hip-hop songs “rising off the page.”

Most of us have never ex-perienced anything similar to what Miranda did, and we probably never will. But that doesn’t mean we haven’t experienced meaningful co-incidences, or events or things that appear to happen out of the blue or without cause, that then reach out and grab our attention. In other words, they have meaning to us—even if they do not for others. And, in fact, as a result of such a

meaningful coincidence—or a series of them—you might decide it is time to take a new direction in your life, for example, or that you’re being shown a pathway to engag-ing in something that will lend a greater sense of pur-pose to your life. You ulti-mately decide the meaning of this meaningful coinci-dence. You decide what ac-tion to take with regard to it—if any at all, that is.

For some religious or spiri-tual people, meaningful coin-cidences may be perceived as the hand of God operating in one’s life. Therefore, there is often a desire to under-stand the message of the meaningful coincidence, and then to act in accordance with it.

I invite you between now and this presentation to think about one or more meaningful coincidences you may have experienced in your life. After all, while I will share some from my life that led to the writ-ing and publication of my book, “The Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder Relationship: How to Support Your Partner and Keep Your Relationship Healthy” as well as behind my arrival and life here today at Rossmoor, I’d hope a few of you might share such an inci-dent—or chain of them—from your own life. Since I’m not going to call on anyone but will only ask for volunteers, please feel comfortable in coming to perhaps learn another way to think about your life—or perhaps another way to perceive how God might be guiding you.

As always, everyone is welcome to join us for this presentation as well as fel-lowship and refreshments afterward. Again, this will be on January 19 at 1:30 p.m. in the Ballroom. I hope to see you then.

Thank you

By Diane England

Even if you haven’t seen t h e B r o a d w a y s h o w “Hamilton” in which Lin-Manuel Miranda has used rap (as well as other music) to tell what is for the most part a historically accurate story based upon Ron Cher-now’s biography of Alexan-der Hamilton, you’ve un-doubtedly heard about it. So, what does this have to do with meaningful coinci-dences, which will be the subject of the talk I’ll be giv-ing at the January meeting of the Women’s Guild on Thurs-day, January 19 at 1:30 p.m. in the Ballroom? Well, if you look at how Miranda came to write this Broadway show, and then think about what he has ultimately achieved, you might conclude, as I have, that he experienced a mean-ingful coincidence.

Miranda was headed on vacation to Mexico in 2008 when he decided he wanted to take a lengthy book with him to read rather than sev-eral shorter ones. As a re-sult, he selected Chernow’s 832-page book. And then what happened? Miranda apparently was immediately

Who else has experienced meaningful coincidences?

On fire

Although the war was over, Washington appreciated the strategic value of such a ca-pacity; he wanted to hear more.

So, one chilly autumn day, Washington and Paine made their way to a nearby creek, carrying with them candles and pocketsful of flints for sparks to set the creek on fire.

But it wasn’t working.

A couple of passing farm-ers, erstwhile soldiers in Washington’s army, asked why the two men were mucking around in the wa-ter. “Look here,” said the farmers, “you’re doing it all wrong.” They grabbed some branches fallen from nearby trees and poked into the mud at the bottom of the creek. Bubbles from this agitation did, indeed, flame up for a few seconds.

Pleased with the vindica-tion of his premise, Paine wrote of the experiment to his friend, the famed chem-ist Joseph Priestley, who had fled persecution in Eng-land to live in rural Pennsyl-vania. Obviously, Priestley successfully duplicated the experiment with the result that today he is known as the discoverer of … methane!


PS. You, too, can visit Washington’s headquarters at Rockingham. The beauti-fully preserved farm house has been moved from its for-mer site along Route 518 because of blasting from nearby Trap Rock Industries. It is now located on Laurel Avenue in Kingston, an easy right-hand turn from southbound Route 27.

With Thanks We would like to extend a

heartfelt thank you to the residents of Rossmoor and the Holiday Gift Fund Com-mittee of the Community Af-fairs Committee for the gift checks we received before the holidays. We find Ross-

moor a special place to work and appreciate being re-membered this past holiday season. Best wishes for happy and healthy 2017 to everyone!

Employees of Rossmoor Community Association


By Gene Horan

The film “Molokai” has all the

elements of great drama, tell-

ing as it does the story of the

lepers in the Hawaiian Islands

cruelly exiled to the island of

Molokai, a place of suffering

and death, but which also be-

came a place of hope and love

with the arrival of Father Da-

mien de Veuster.

Father Damien was a young

Belgian missionary who in

1873 volunteered to go to the

island for three months to min-

ister to the lepers. He ended

up staying there for the rest of

his life, continuing his ministry

energetically even after he

contracted leprosy himself. He

eventually collapsed in 1889

while saying Mass and was

taken to his own hospital to

die.

Author Robert Louis Steven-

son wrote a passionate philip-

pic attacking a Honolulu cleric

who wrote a published letter

berating the deceased priest-

leper. In it Stevenson tells

about his own visit to Molokai.

The small boat taking him to

the island also carried two

nuns headed for service in the

same place. One of them was

quietly weeping and Steven-

son could not restrain from

doing the same. He would say

that the week he spent in Mo-

lokai changed his life.

Actor David Wenham lov-

ingly plays the role of Damien,

supported by a brilliant cast

including Peter O’Toole, Kris

Kristofferson and Sam Neil.

Those who are familiar with

the life of Damien, who was

canonized in 2009, will be

pleased with how faithfully the

movie mirrors the facts of his

life.

The film will be shown in the

Gallery of the Clubhouse at

1:30 p.m. on Friday, January

13.

The viewing is sponsored by

the Catholic Society. All are

welcome. There is no charge

and refreshments will be avail-

able.

that at least half the colonials had either read it themselves, or had it read to them.

Paine followed with “The American Crisis,” a series of pamphlets that came out through 1783 to support Gen-eral Washington’s leadership in an increasingly war-weary populace.

During that time, Paine saw active duty as an aide to Gen-eral Nathaniel Greene. He was sent on a 1781 mission to France that brought 2.5 million livres of silver to Washington’s aid, part of a gift of six million, and a further promise of a loan of 10 million.

In 1791, Paine wrote “The Rights of Man,” in support of the French revolution. It sold a million copies. In recognition of his efforts on behalf of the French people, Paine was awarded honorary French citi-zenship, along with George Washington, Benjamin Frank-lin, and Alexander Hamilton. He was then elected to their National Convention, in spite of not being able to speak French.

When the Reign of Terror that followed the French Revo-lution gobbled up both friends and enemies, Paine found himself imprisoned and sched-uled for the guillotine. He kept his head only by fortuitous accident until the fall of the bloodthirsty Robespierre, and was released by the efforts of America’s Minister to France, James Monroe.

Paine was 66 years of age in 1803 when he returned to America, accompanied by Marguerite Brazier, the young wife of his imprisoned friend Nicholas Bonneville, and her three sons for whom Paine had served as godfather. They became his only family in his

last years, when the young United States was so riven with political discord that Paine’s service was forgotten. He died six years later in Greenwich Village on June 8, 1809 and was buried on the farm in New Rochelle that had been awarded to him by New York State in recognition of his incomparable aid to our Ameri-can Revolution.

Controversial because he was fearless in his criticism of authoritarian governments, of some religious themes, and (perhaps unwisely) of some individuals in high places, Paine has not received the recognition he deserves for spearheading our battle for independence. His “Common Sense” had the greatest public impact on American history of any piece of writing, followed only by “Uncle Tom’s Cabin.”

Even the cranky Anglo-Federalist John Adams had to concede that “without the pen of the author of Common Sense, the sword of Washing-ton would have been raised in vain.”

Some historians have dubbed him “The Father of the American Revolution.” Tho-mas Paine is honored on January 29.

“Molokai,” the story of Father Damien’s ministry to the lepers

Father Damien

We honor a radical non-conformist By Carol De Haan

Did you know that in the England of King George III, there was much anti-monarchial sentiment? The town of Lewes, on the South Downs, was a hotbed of re-publicanism. Even the Duke of Gloucester, younger brother of George III, admired the colo-nial rebels. After the American Revolution, many English homes displayed a portrait of George Washington, obviously their latter-day Robin Hood. So, is it any wonder that an Englishman migrated to the new world to inspire the very dangerous battle for independ-ence?

Thirty-seven-year old Tho-mas Paine arrived in Philadel-phia in 1774 with a letter of introduction from Benjamin Franklin. A year later, he was the acclaimed editor of the prestigious Philadelphia Ga-zette. In support of independ-ence, Paine used his consider-able journalistic talent to ad-vance the cause among a public that was largely skepti-cal about casting aside tradi-tional ties with the King.

His first effort, the 1776 pamphlet titled “Common Sense,” sold out rapidly in the year after fighting had begun, with 250,000 copies circulating in a population of two million people. Historians estimate

Thomas Paine

These are the times that try men’s souls. The summer sol-dier and sunshine patriot will, in this crisis, shrink from the ser-vice of their country; but he that stands it now, deserves the love and thanks of man and woman. Tyranny, like Hell, is not easily conquered; yet we have this consolation with us, that the harder the conflict, the more glorious the triumph. What we obtain too cheap, we esteem too lightly; it is dearness only that gives every thing its value. Heaven knows how to put a proper price upon its goods; and it would be strange indeed if so ce-lestial an article as freedom should not be highly rated.

from The American Crisis, by Thomas Paine


By Anne Rotholz

It is little wonder that Janu-ary is the national month of oatmeal, of hot tea, and of soup since all of those foods evoke in us feelings of warmth and comfort.

Oatmeal

For many of us oatmeal in some form or other was a breakfast staple in our early years. Few foods have the respect and reputation that oatmeal has in terms of be-ing a nutritious, healthy food.

Purchasing oatmeal today is very simple. On a trip to the local supermarket, one only has to choose from the several varieties available. You can buy steel-cut oatmeal also called Irish or pinhead oatmeal where the oat kernels called “groats” were chopped by steel blades. This type of oat-meal takes about 30 minutes to cook. For rolled or old fash-ioned oats the kernels were steamed before being flat-tened by metal rollers. It will take only five minutes to cook. Quick oats will cook in about a minute because the kernels were flattened even more. Instant oatmeal is self- ex-planatory. Pour on the boiling water and voila! You can also purchase Scottish oatmeal where the oat kernels were ground. When this oatmeal is cooked it has a smooth tex-ture. All oatmeal except the steel-cut type can be cooked in the microwave, saving time

in our busy lives by shortening the cooking process.

Before being cut in any form, the oats undergo a process of cleaning, followed by some form of chemical treatment to give the oatmeal a longer shelf-life. Unfortu-nately for the consumer, the more involved this process is and the longer it takes the greater is the loss of nutri-ents.

Every time I purchase a package of oatmeal and wonder at how simple and neat it looks, my memory takes me back to my child-hood in Ireland. I lived on a farm where the oat crop had great status. When we were children we watched it from the time it was planted until it came to our table as break-fast.

In spring my father se-lected the oat field carefully and proceeded to till it. He then got the big bag of oats he had saved from the previ-ous year’s crop. We followed him to the field to watch him scatter the seed. Each time, to our amazement, a huge flock of seagulls was already there. They probably had sentinels posted for days! The seagulls had a good breakfast before my father got the soil in the field turned over in order to cover the remaining oats.

After a few weeks, the oats began to sprout and beautiful green shoots appeared as if

from nowhere. Soon the whole field was covered by braird and it looked like a green blanket. We watched the oats grow all through the summer and we saw the ker-nels develop. In August, the oat field turned to a beautiful shade of gold. At this point my father got out his scythe and sharpened the blade.

It took him a whole day to cut the oats. My brothers, sometimes accompanied by my mother, followed behind gathering the oats into sheaves and tying each one. Three or four sheaves were then put standing together which allowed the wind to blow through them so they could dry in the field. Once the ker-nels were dry, the crop was taken home to the threshing barn where my father used a flail to detach the grain from the straw and to loosen the hulls, or as we called them, the chaff. Waiting for the next windy day was usually not a big problem in Ireland. When it arrived, my father took the oats and a large shallow vat (called a winnowing fan) to the top of the nearest hill. We fol-lowed as usual accompanied by other children from the vil-lage. He put batches of oats into the vat and shook it vigor-ously. We watched in awe as the wind blew the chaff to the four corners of the earth. On the following day, my father took the oats to the local mill and returned with several bags

January’s chilly weather brings thoughts of warm food of oatmeal. That wonderful organic, nutritious, steel-cut food would give us healthy breakfasts for almost a year.

I can still see the con-tented expression on my fa-ther’s face as he finished this task. I sometimes wonder what would bring him that kind of contentment if he lived in today’s world. I re-member his love for mathe-matics and how he made it fun for all of us. I picture him with that same expression sitting in front of a computer working on a mathematical problem or formula.

Oatmeal is still produced (using modern technology) on a large scale in Ireland and it is exported to many countries. You can find McCann’s or Fla-havan’s steel-cut oats or oat flakes here in our local super-markets.

Hot Tea

Hot tea is another cold weather favorite. If you come from Ireland, it is a staple of life and a “cure-all” for every-thing. I like to think that tea is most enjoyable when you share it with somebody while having a good chat!

Today, tea comes in many forms and flavors. Some people like traditional tea with sugar, milk or both. Oth-ers prefer black tea with lemon. Herbal tea and green tea have become very popu-lar in recent years.

There is a secret to making good traditional tea. The wa-ter must be BOILING when it

is poured on the tea bag or on the tea leaves if you are making it in a pot. Restau-rants here are notorious for failing to provide boiling wa-ter. When I go out with my Irish friends they almost al-ways ask for boiling water when they order tea and sometimes they have to ask a second time. I usually take the easy way out and order coffee.

I am partial to Irish tea and I usually come back from Ireland with a good supply. Our local supermarkets carry both Bewley and Barry tea bags and also their loose tea.

Finally, do not boil water for your tea in the micro-wave. The water may get superheated and erupt when you remove it from the micro-wave causing burns to the hands or face.

Soup

Because I have already taken up a lot of the paper’s space with oatmeal and hot tea, I am going to skip the history of soup. Instead I am going to give you a recipe for Anne’s Chicken Soup. You will not find this one on the Internet. It is a simple recipe that I developed over the years. My friends will attest to the fact that it is nutritious and very tasty. It might be a good idea to forget all you learned about soup-making before you try this one.

This recipe, which is about (Continued on page 10)


the advantage of the medical profession.

1947 - Al Capone, who con-trolled organized crime in Chi-cago with a hail of bullets, was felled by a bullet of a different kind: syphilis. It is rumored that Capone was looking to a fu-ture that included other large cities in his crime organization. Which all goes to prove you should never make New Year’s resolutions you can’t keep.

Happy New Year!

for about 20 minutes until the chicken is cooked. Remove the chicken from the pot, place it on a dish and set it aside to cool. Peel the carrots and parsnips, cut in ½ inch pieces and place them in the pot. Chop the celery and onions and throw them in. Bring all to a boil and cook gently for 10 minutes. While the vegetables are cooking, peel the potatoes and cut in quarters. Place them in the pot and add a can of broth. Bring everything to the boil again and cook gently until all the vegetables are done. Turn off the heat. Check the chicken. When it is cool enough, cover the dish with foil and put it in the refrigerator. It is easier to cut it when it is cold. It is time now to take a rest so sit down, relax and maybe have a cup of tea.

When the vegetables have cooled, place the pot on a sturdy surface. Now get an old-fashioned potato masher. You can get rid of all your frustrations at this point. Mash the vegetables to a coarse puree. You should be able to see little pieces of carrot that will give the soup a lovely color. Take out the chicken and cut it into ½ inch pieces. Add the chicken to the puree and mix gently. Now it is time to taste it. You might want to add pepper, but definitely no salt There is plenty of salt in the broth.

Next get out some quart freezer bags. I use the Zip-lock “stand and fill” bags. To make it less messy, I put some paper towels on the bottom of a 13x9 baking pan and I put the filled bags there. Fill the bags a little more than ½ full, more if you want. Get the extra air out before you close the bag so that it will take up less of your freezer room. Refriger-ate the puree overnight. The next day put the bags a few at a time in your freezer. You should have about 10 bags.

When the next cold day comes, remove a bag from the freezer and grab one of those extra cans of broth. Heat them together on the stove. (The puree will come out of the bag easily if you run it under cold water.)

You are now ready to en-joy your delicious, healthy, nutritious soup. It has lovely fresh vegetables, no added salt and only a trace of fat. Best of all you have a supply for some of the coldest weeks of winter.

half the size of the one I usu-ally make, will give you sev-eral delicious meals in the cold weeks ahead. The amount of each ingredient is negotiable, one less potato or two more carrots will not change the final outcome. So relax and enjoy your cooking.

You will need the following ingredients: 2½ lbs. of boneless, skinless chicken breasts washed and cut in half. 1 Tablespoon of real butter 2 lbs of carrots - Do not use the baby ones as they were cut from large carrots. They have little flavor and they are sometimes tough. 3 parsnips (You may not be crazy about parsnips but do not omit them as they give the soup its lovely nutty-sweet flavor) 2 large onions 3 or 4 celery stalks. Do not use the tough outer ones as they are hard to mash. 3 lbs potatoes - It does not matter what kind you use. 4 cans of College Inn chicken broth. You will need extra cans later.

Now you are ready to get to work.

Put the butter and one can of broth in a large pot. Add the chicken and bring all to a sim-mer. Do not boil the chicken as it may get tough. Let it simmer


Bob’s Almanac By Bob Huber

Warm food

If you were fortunate enough to be born during the first month of a brand-new year, you are in impressive company. You share the month with such notables as Paul Revere (1735), Betsy Ross (1752), J. Edgar Hoo-ver (1895), Joan of Arc (1412), President Millard Fill-more (1850), President Rich-ard M. Nixon (1913), Martin Luther King, Jr. (1929), Ben-jamin Franklin (1706), Gen. Robert E Lee (1807), astro-naut “Buzz” Aldrin (1930), John Hancock (1737), Gen. Douglas MacArthur (1880), Wolfgang Mozart (1756) and President Franklin D. Roose-velt (1882).

January has also been host to numerous events which have left their mark on the pages of American his-tory. A short list includes the following:

1892 - Ellis Island opened. Over 20 million people were processed through its gates before the facility closed in 1954, forever changing the face of America.

1942 - 26 countries signed the Declaration of the United Nations.

1959 - Fidel Castro seized power in Cuba after a revolu-tion that drove dictator Ba-tista from power. Most coun-tries were caught off guard when Castro declared that his country would follow the political path of communism.

1777 - General George Washington defeated the British at Princeton, driving them back toward New Brunswick where, no doubt, some of them still re-main on the faculty of Rutgers University.

1977 - Alaska was admit-ted as the 49th state in the union adding a land mass which is 1/5 the size of the entire lower 48 states.

1968 - Nellie Ross of Wyo-ming became the nation’s first female governor.

1964 - President Lyndon Johnson declared war on

poverty. Depending on your perspective, poverty appears to have won.

1879 - An amendment al-lowing women to vote was introduced in Congress. It didn’t pass until 1920, 41 years later. Congress hasn’t changed much.

1849 - Elizabeth Blackwell became America’s first woman medical doctor, opening the door to a trend which has increased dramati-cally in recent years, much to


gift tax liability for transfer-ring assets into the trust may be sheltered by the estate and gift tax exemp-tion.

Other concepts, such as naming a trust as an IRA beneficiary, also can be helpful in certain situations. But the five listed here may help you achieve your goals.

Keep in mind, though, that trusts are complex, and you’ll need professional assistance in structuring and implementing these estate planning ideas.

Norman J. Politziner, CFP, CeFT, a resident of Encore, is a Registered Representative and Investment Adviser Repre-sentative of Equity Services Inc. Securities and investment advi-sory services are offered solely by Equity Services, Member FINRA/SIPC, 4401 Starkey Rd., Roanoke, VA 24018. (540) 989-4600.

NJP Associates and all other entities are independent of Eq-uity Services, Inc.

For more information, ques-tions, or comments, we encour-age you to visit our website at www.politziner.com or call us at (732) 296-9355. 11/9/2016

©2016 Advisor Products Inc. All Rights Reserved.

The views and information contained herein may have been prepared independently of the presenting Representative and are presented for informational purposes only and should not be construed as investment advice. This information is not intended as tax or legal advice. Please consult with your Attorney or Accountant prior to acting upon any of the information contained in this correspondence.

TC93059(1216)1

IMPORTANT NOTICE Motorists must obey the rules of the road while driving

within the Community including, but not limited to, observing the posted speed limits, No U-Turn, Yield, and One Way signs; stopping for pedestrians;

making a full stop at all stop signs; and exercising extreme caution

when entering RCAI streets from lanes or other areas

without stop signs.

Sound Advice Norman J. Politziner, CFP®, CeFT® President of NJP Associates

If you’re like most well-to-do people, one of your main financial objectives is to transfer wealth to your heirs with a minimum of tax ero-sion. Several estate plan-ning techniques could help you move closer to that elu-sive goal. Consider these five opportunities:

1. Lifetime gifts. One of the simplest wealth transfer methods also can be one of the most effective. By giv-ing away property to other family members during your lifetime, you remove those assets from your taxable estate. If you plan carefully, you can make direct gifts without incurring any gift tax liability. And you also may be able to leave assets to your heirs under favor-able tax conditions.

The primary tax breaks are:

An annual gift tax exclusion covering transfers of up to $14,000 per year per recipient ($28,000 for gifts by a married couple). You can make these gifts to as many people as you like.

In addition, everyone is entitled to transfer a total of $5.45 million in 2016 (the amount is indexed to inflation) in lifetime gifts and bequests without tax consequences.

Inherited property benefits from a “step-up” in basis—the value of the assets, for calculating taxable investment gains, is what they’re worth at the death of the person who made the bequest, rather than when he or she acquired them. That can reduce future taxes. (But note that lifetime gifts don’t get a step-up.) 2. Intra-family loans.

Usually, you can lend up to $10,000 to a child or an-other relative with no strings attached—and no questions asked by the IRS. You don’t even have to charge interest. How-ever, if the borrowed amount exceeds $10,000 and you don’t charge a rea-sonable interest rate, the IRS will consider the amount you didn’t charge as interest income to you. One exception is that on loans of $100,000 or less, the amount of interest you’re treated as receiving annually for tax purposes is limited to the child’s net

investment income for the year.

3. Dynasty trusts. This type of trust is designed to span several generations. You transfer selected as-sets—say, a combination of stocks, bonds, and real es-tate—to a trust managed by an independent trustee, usually a professional or financial entity. The trust may be created during your lifetime or through your will. Once the trust is estab-lished, it is irrevocable, so you give up control over the assets and the right to change beneficiaries. De-pending on the terms, in-come may continue to ac-cumulate within the trust or be paid out to beneficiaries. The trustee also may have discretion to use part of the principal for the health, education, support, and maintenance of the benefi-ciaries, or under other cir-cumstances.

4. GRATs. With a grantor-retained annuity trust (GRAT), you transfer assets into the trust while retaining the right to receive annual annuity payments for a specified number of years. When the GRAT term ends, the remaining assets are distributed to the beneficiar-ies you named. The annuity payments you receive dur-ing the term of the GRAT and resulting gift tax value is calculated using a gov-ernment rate for this pur-pose, which is currently relatively low. So while you continue to receive annuity payments based on that low rate during the GRAT term, if trust assets grow at a faster rate, the beneficiaries will benefit when they re-ceive the balance remain-ing at the end of the trust term.

5. IDGTs. Often you might transfer assets to a trust and name loved ones as “income beneficiaries” who get the investment in-come the trust generates. That way, you’ll avoid in-come tax on those future earnings. However, the trust will be taxed on that income, and the top 39.6% rate for trusts kicks in when income exceeds $12,400 in 2016. To avoid that result, the trust could be structured t o b e i n t e n t i o n a l l y “defective,” so that income is taxable to you instead of to the intentionally defective grantor trust (IDGT). The

Five tax-smart ways to transfer your wealth

Happy New Year — 2017


Happy New Year By Betty Emmons

The old year has come to an end. The young are dreaming dreams of the fu-ture while the old reflect on dreams fulfilled and dreams that have failed or were not fulfilled.

Some of us have lost loved ones and are sad. Others have joy because another generation is born. Every day is full of drama, be it life or death, success or failure, and life goes on.

I am writing this from the vantage point of age, which

Musings and Memories By Betty Emmons

gives me a head start on a new beginning. I don’t make resolutions anymore. They never really worked for me anyway, but I have learned a few lessons along the way. Hope still burns brightly within me without the ur-gency of youth, and I am grateful for the things of the past, the good things be-cause they were good and the heartaches and disap-pointments without which I could not or would not have grown.

The only thing now is that I can see differences differently

and tolerance and understand-ing have grown into a compla-cency and a contentment, which was not a part of my youth. It is true that chronologi-cal age determines when we slow down but the expectation of things to come becomes an anticipation of the joy that still awaits us here on earth or in the life to come.

So, I’m excited as my jour-ney goes on and as I greet the New Year with the opti-mism that the best is yet to come, I say Happy, Happy New Year everyone. God bless and be with us all.

Christmas ...a world full of beauty and laced with the joys of anticipation

By Norma Evans

Our young children happily joined in the gleeful atmos-phere and learned early to awaken us way before dawn (whenever possible) to join them in opening the mystery presents wrapped and wait-ing under the Christmas Tree.

Remembering, watching their faces as they ripped the Christmas paper from the boxes and much to our sur-prise pulled out the toy, cast it aside with only a glance, to play with, of all things, the box. The real present, for which we had saved, shopped and spent, seemed at first insignificant to them. As years of Christmases went by they became wiser and realized the greater value of the gift inside.

Pondering that scene, I now realize how represen-tative it is of my relation-ships. How easily I can fo-cus on the outside of peo-ple (the wrappings), and miss the real person them-

selves, their heart, their thoughts and their feelings, their value. It also makes me think of how easy it is to get distracted at Christmas time with blinking lights, the

bling of tinsel, the colorful wrappings and the delight-ful music while missing the true value of Christmas, God’s precious gift to us, His Son, Jesus Christ.

By Christina Smith, Resident Services Manager

Shawn Cavanaugh, 112-A Glenwood Lane, formerly of Monroe Twp., N.J.

Shaun and Laura Flynn, 2-B Old Nassau Road, formerly of Monroe Twp., N.J.

Catherine Baio, 144-C Providence Way, formerly of Monroe Twp., N.J.

Suzette Sulsone, 121-A Lowell Lane, formerly of Lakewood, N.J.

Eileen DiPietro, 174-D Portland Lane, formerly of South River, N.J.

Carroll and Joan Hender-

son, 314-O Sharon Way, formerly of Monroe Twp., N.J.

Patrick and Sheila Connor, 603-A Old Nassau Road, formerly of Monroe Twp., N.J.

Robin Harris and Martha Sherry, 134-N Old Nassau Road, formerly of East Win-dsor, N.J.

Patricia Steiner, 710-A Yarborough Way, formerly of Basking Ridge, N.J.

Carlos and Deborah Pina, 516-O Revere Way, formerly of Little Egg Harbor, N.J.

Patricia Toner, 366-A Old Nassau Road, formerly of Monroe Twp., N.J.

James Altobello, 187-N Rossmoor Drive, formerly of Parlin, N.J.

Rosemary Masella, 35-B (Continued on page 13)

JANUARY 2017 The Rossmoor NEWS

1A


2A


3A


4A


There were leftovers from our cookout after Kooky Kroquet last summer so Carolyn took home the hot dogs and I took home the buns and condiments. The next Sunday a small group had a cookout behind my house.

Ken started the fire early in the new grill as I put out the hors d’oeuvres. Five of us sat around the table in the sunroom sipping our drinks and munching away on pimiento cheese spread, shrimp bruschetta, chopped chicken livers, mixed nuts, cheese (Brie and cheddar with bacon) and crackers.

After about an hour, Ken suggested it might be time to eat. I mentioned that I had made okra, tomato and corn soup. Everyone said, “Yes” except Ken, claiming soup didn’t go with hot dogs.

Well, he went out to put the hot dogs on the grill and there was no fire. He thought about starting over but decided that would take too long.

“Just have your soup,” he muttered as he grabbed the hot dogs to boil on the kitchen stove.

The ladies—-even the one who insisted she didn’t eat okra—-all claimed the soup was delicious and col-orful; there were even re-quests for the recipe.

I had prepared the soup because we had more okra from our plot at the Monroe Township Community Gar-dens than I knew what to do with. I found a recipe from a cooking column I wrote back in 1983 and de-cided to tweak it a bit. Here’s my version.

CULINARY CORNER By Sidna Mitchell

Culinary corner Okra, Tomato & Corn Soup

2 teaspoons bacon fat ¾ cup diced onions ¾ cup okra, sliced and diced 1 tablespoon hot pepper, diced

1 can (14-oz.) diced tomatoes ½ cup whole kernel corn 2 cups beef broth salt and pepper to taste if needed

Melt the bacon fat—or use butter—in a medium skillet.

Cook onions, okra and hot pepper briefly until onions wilt; do not brown.

Transfer the vegetables to a soup pot and add the tomatoes, corn and beef broth.

If needed, salt and pepper to taste. Bring to a boil; reduce heat and simmer for about 20-

30 minutes. Add some water or more beef broth if the soup gets

too thick. NOTE: I cut the okra into very small pieces, knowing

some folks would balk at the idea of eating that green vegetable. Okra can be found in the frozen food section or with tomatoes in a can at your grocery store if you can’t wait for fresh okra.

I can be reached via e-mail at [email protected].

Concord Lane, formerly of Staten Island, N.Y.

Soonja C and Sin U Nam, 188-A Rossmoor Drive, for-merly of Yardley, Pa.

Margaret Corrigan, 301-D Sharon Way, formerly of Hightstown, N.J.

Beverly Reddan, 95-N Gloucester Way, formerly of Brielle, N.J.

Michele DeLasso, 52-O Emerson Lane, formerly of Jamesburg, N.J.

Mary Patrick, 138-B Ply-mouth Lane, formerly of Ken-ilworth, N.J.


Thank you all for your kind-ness, care, and assistance you have given me during my surgery recovery. It only takes a moment to say “thank you,” but your prayers and help will be remembered forever. From the heart, Phyllis Palfy

Thank you

Chocolate covered cherries – yum!

By Linda Bozowski

One of the traditional foods enjoyed during the holiday season is the chocolate covered cherry, also known as the choco-late cordial. According to some sources, cordials were originally created to stimulate the heart and im-prove circulation. Chocolate covered cherries were not the earliest recipe used for this purpose, but were cre-ated as a confection some-time after the 1400s.

Cordials were originally made with liquor surrounding the fruit. Fruits other than cherries were used by some confectioners, but cherries soon because the most popular. Most candies made these days do not contain liquor. Instead, the cherry is surrounded by a sugary syrup and then covered in

chocolate ganache after the syrup has hardened.

The oldest commercial manufacture of chocolate covered cherries began in 1864, but large scale produc-tion wasn’t popularized until 1929. The treat is most popular during the winter holiday season, and also as a Valentine’s Day gift. During the rest of the year, it may be difficult to find the candies on store shelves.

Brach’s Candy Company is the most well-known manu-facturer, although other com-panies make the candies as well, including Hershey’s and Mars.

A recipe for making your own candies is available online, and looks pretty easy. The candies can be stored in an air-tight container for up to a month (if they last that long).


Clubs and OrganizationsClubs and OrganizationsClubs and Organizations

Players pastimes

By Tony Cardello

The Christmas champagne brunch at the Cranbury Inn was once again a successful affair. Those who attended had a great time. The food was plentiful and the enter-tainment made for a lively party. The Christmas sing-along put everyone in a holi-day frame of mind. As it was last year, the 12 days of Christmas led by Lucille Conti was a highlight of the day.

The officers of the club wish everyone and their families a very healthy, happy and blessed new year. We look forward to another year of growth, camaraderie,

entertainment, social activi-ties, and contributions to de-serving charities.

For those of you who have not submitted your 2017 dues please send a $15 pay-ment to Joan Russo at 288C Sudbury Lane or bring it to the first membership meeting on January 15. We will also be collecting for our annual Carnevale which will be held on February 28.

The first membership meeting will be held on Janu-ary 18 at 7:30 p m in the Ballroom.

Bingo will be played on January 13 in the Ballroom at 6:30 p m.

Italian American Club

Officers being sworn in by Marie Craver L-R : Lou Russo, Bob Macchiarola, Tony Cardello, Lennie Caglianone, John Russo, Joe Conti

Karaoke Singers, R-L, Mary Perry, Sue Archambault, Diane Arce, Yvonne Nobile, Arlene Szmutko. Such emotion, such feeling, how hammy!

By Sue Archambault

The Players December meeting was our holiday party. Several tables of Play-ers enjoyed a feast at Anto-nio’s Restaurant on Apple-garth Road. There was much fun and laughter, not a sur-prise considering that The Players try to make every get- t o g e t h e r a n a l l -encompassing good time. The food was scrumptious, which certainly helped make the evening a huge success. The Players would like to thank Laurie Moyer and Jeff Horner for making the ar-rangements for this success-ful evening.

The next meeting for The Players will be held on Mon-

day, January 30. The eve-ning promises to be an enter-taining one. Norman Perkus will lead us in an evening of improvisation. Volunteers will be given certain situations with which to work towards creating a comedic routine. Participants will entertain us with solo and group acts. Laughter is bound to ensue. Allare welcome to join us in the Gallery at 7 p.m. for this fun evening.


This month in pictures Photos by Joe Conti and Walter Gryskiewicz

Emerald Society Halloween party procession More Emerald Society Halloween costumes

Carla McDonald from Maintenance had the honor of carrying the flag for the Interfaith service.

Marie Martino and Jack Babic at Italian American Christmas party

Alex and Linda Monaco enjoying a quiet moment at the party

Alex Monaco - 1st Day of Christmas

Matty Damiano takes the mic at the karaoke party From left are Tom Hanlein, Dennis Arce and Tom Croake


By Alec Aylat

With all the many targeted scams and malware becoming more and more prevalent on the World Wide Web (Internet) the possibility of your com-puter being attacked, hacked, or in some way compromised is growing exponentially, ac-cording to Fred Milman, Com-puter Club vice-president and chairman of the TechCom committee. Fred will address this subject in detail at the club’s general meeting on January 16 in the Gallery at 10 a.m., and, it being Martin Lu-ther King Day, special refresh-ments will be ready at 9.30.

Fred will discuss the actions we can take to alleviate the dangers of losing control of our computer’s sensitive data, both personal, financial or even medical and then having our information stolen for criminal use or identity theft. He notes that thieves can use our credit card information to

run up false charges on our cards, or even use our current card IDs and/or open up new credit cards in our names to steal even more of our money.

He underlines that with one’s Social Security number they can gain access to in-coming checks by changing one’s mailing address at the Social Security Administration, obtain a duplicate SS card, create new credit cards for themselves, plus new fake bank accounts, and even gain Medicare coverage for them-selves when needed. It’s frightening and worrying.

But Fred’s presentation will provide behavioral guidelines to help keep us and our important data safer online, as well as of-fer a complete explanation and list of the software products to install on our computers to effectively eliminate most, if not all, of their schemes and plots.

Fred will also demonstrate ways and means to keep cur-rent software programs up-dated and patched to eliminate new security leaks as they’re discovered. He will detail the anti-virus and anti-malware programs best used to dis-cover and eliminate both cur-rently active hackers and new threats as they are started up. He will cover both the free pro-grams and will recommend some low priced professional versions that may be more automated and possibly more effective.

All in all, Fred’s presentation is one that club members, and all computer-wise residents, will not want to miss. You can even make an early start on the club’s website at www.rossmoor.org which Fred edits.

Rossmoor Dance Club January Dance

Saturday, January 28 at 7 p.m.

Name: _______________________________________

Phone: ____________________

Address: ______________________________________

PAID-UP Member(s):___ @$ 8 = ________

Non-member(s):——— @ $10 = ________

2017 membership dues $7.50 per person;

$15 per couple ________

Total ________

RESERVATION DEADLINE: January 20 Please send check made out to the Rossmoor Dance

Club to: Armen DeVivo at 449B Roxbury Lane. 609-655-2175

or leave in an envelope in the Dance Club folder

in the E & R Office

Keeping your computer safe when you’re online

By Irene Poulin

Right Behind You by Lisa Gardner

FBI profiler Pierce Quincy and his wife, Rainie Connor are about to adopt 13-year-old Shariah May, whose older brother, Telly, saved both their lives eight years previously by beating their staggering-drunk father to death.

Most Dangerous Place by James Grippano: A Jack Swyteck Novel

Defending a woman ac-cused of murdering the man who sexually assaulted her, Miami lawyer Jack Swyteck must uncover where the truth lies between innocence, vengeance, and justice.

Bone Box: A Decker/Lazarus Novel by Faye Kel-lerman

Rina Lazarus makes a shocking discovery in the woods of her upstate New York community that leads her husband, police detective Peter Decker, through a se-ries of gruesome decades of unsolved murders.

Heartbreak Hotel: An Alex Delaware Novel by Jonathan Kellerman

Alex Delaware and Milo Sturgis investigate the death of Alex’s most mysterious patient to date, who is clos-ing in on 100 years of age.

Never Never by James Pat-terson and Candice Fox

Deep in the Western Aus-tralian desert, three young people have disappeared from the Bandys Mine and it’s Detective Harriet Blue’s

job to track them down.

The Second Mrs. Hocka-day: A Novel by Susan Riv-ers

Placida Fincher is 17 when she marries Confederate Major Gryffth Hockaday, an enigmatic major in the Con-federate army. She spends two days as his wife before his redeployment, when she’s left to run his estate and care for his child by an earlier marriage.

Racing the Devil: An In-spector Ian Rutledge Mystery by Charles Todd

Before the Battle of the Somme, a group of English officers swear that if they survive the war, they’ll meet in Paris a year after the armi-stice and race motorcars to Nice. In 1919, after setting off from the City of Light, two of them are run off the road and one seriously injured.

Below the Belt by Stuart Woods

Stone Barrington and the gang are back in the line of fire, but with his usual unflap-pable aplomb, Stone always comes out on top.

Library Hours: Monday thru Friday 10 a.m. to noon 1:30 to 3:30 p.m. Library closed Saturdays

By Judy Perkus

Join the Dance Club and friends in the Ballroom on Saturday, January 28 at 7 p.m. We will be dancing to the music of Bobby Picone. In addition to the dancing and socializing, we will have snacks, dessert (sugar-free available), coffee, tea, and soda.

All residents are welcome – singles and couples. We dance to many types of mu-sic: from swing to waltzes, Latin to polka, tango to disco,

country to line dances and more.

To reserve, please send your check made out to the Rossmoor Dance Club ($8 per paid-up member, $10 per guest) to Armen DeVivo at 449B Roxbury Lane by Janu-ary 20.

Send your 2017 Dance Club dues of $15 per cou-ple, $7.50 per person to Armen, if you’ve not already done so.

Call Armen at 655-2175 for more information.

The New Jersey Club By Eileen Parker

The New Jersey Club will meet on Friday, January 20, at 1:30 p.m. in the Ballroom. Our meeting will feature a presentation by Al Parker titled: “Fort Lee, N.J., the Movie Making Capitol of the World!” As most of us think only of Hollywood when movie making is mentioned, come and see what remark-able things occurred here in New Jersey to give birth to this new type of entertain-ment. All are welcome, and refreshments will be served.

A special thank you By Paulette Mascia

A special thank you to all our volunteers who worked so diligently with the Women’s Guild Bazaar on November 5. I thank you all so much for donating your time and getting the bazaar ready for our sale.

I’d like to also thank all the residents who donated so many beautiful items and everyone who came to shop.

Thank you again and again, and we look forward to seeing you all next year.

Your Women’s Guild chair-person, Paulette Mascia and her wonderful committee.

Rossmoor Republican Club By Ron Haas

Have a Happy and Healthy Holiday and New Year.

Let’s dance: Start the New Year right


as much fun as last year’s trip to Niagara Falls. There will also be various daytrips. Keep your eye out for the regular articles from the Em-erald Society in this paper.

Focus on: Groups and Clubs

By Arlene McBride

Happy New Year 2017 On behalf of the Ladies’ 18

-hole golf league, I wish you all continued safety and health in the New Year.

Is it too early to think about the spring season? As of this writing, some snow showers were expected, but we’re being optimistic. Contact Ar-

Emerald Society: fun, food, and trips

very sociable group enjoyed company and conversation.

In addition to the usual monthly meetings, the club will have parties and trips in 2017, which are sure to be

particular meeting the offi-cers for 2017 were elected, including the current presi-dent, treasurer, and secre-tary, with a new vice presi-dent, Carol O’Brien. John Cummings also remains as the sergeant-at-arms.

Enter ta iner Mat thew Kresge, playing guitar and singing, regaled the mem-bers with folk, country, blues, and oldies but goodies. He used an ingenious loop pedal to lay down base, then rhythm, and third background to back his guitar melody and voice, making himself into a 5-person band. After that, refreshments - in this case pizza - were served, and this


SPORTS

Ladies’ 18-hole league’s greeting for the New Year

By Joan Avery

The annual Christmas trip to the American Music Thea-ter in Lancaster, Pa., on De-cember 6 was a great suc-cess. There was also a stop at the popular “Village” for lunch. Dinner was at the ac-claimed Good and Plenty Restaurant with a bountiful family style Amish dinner.

The Emerald Society’s Christmas party was held on

Saturday, December 10 from 6 to 10 p.m. in the Club-house Ballroom. The music was by Outcast Productions. The dinner was outstanding, as it always is, with Top Hat catering the event. The menu consisted of hot and cold hors d’oeuvres, green salad, prime rib, chicken marsala, broiled tilapia, vegetables, dessert, and coffee. There was wine on the table and everyone had a wonderful evening. This event was a great way to end the Emer-ald Society year.

Dan Jolly has also ar-ranged for a trip to the Sands Casino in Bethlehem, Pa., for February. The date will be announced. Always a fun trip.

The terrific entertainment at the December 21 Emerald Society meeting was by Jack and Sherri, who always put on a great show.

Dan has also arranged for a representative from the Middlesex County Sheriff’s Department to speak about “Home Safety” at the Janu-ary meeting. See you at the January 25 meeting!

Emerald Society’s winter activities

Mutual 2 – tree lighting By Dennis Haggerty

Mutual 2 celebrated its second annual Christmas tree lighting on December 4. Many Mutual 2 residents and guests attended the festivities. Celebrants placed ornaments on two trees, and carol singing was part of the program. A good time was had by all. The trees are located at the end of Emer-son Lane and were lit nightly throughout the Christmas season. We hope you can all join us for next year’s tree lighting.

lene McBride at (609) 395-1 0 1 7 o r a r l e n e m [email protected], if inter-ested in joining the ladies’ 18-hole league for the spring season. Please note the 2017 membership form is attached to this article.

A big THANK YOU for all of your cooperation through the past golf season.

Rossmoor 18-Hole Ladies’ Golf League 2017 Membership Form

Please return the membership application by April 1, 2017 or earlier.

Membership fee: $75. Prospective members, please enclose a current USGA

handicap card or five Rossmoor scorecards attested by a league member and your check in the above amount. (Maximum handicap – 40)

Name: _______________________________________ Address: _____________________________________ Phone: ______________________________________ GHIN #: _____________________________________ Email Address: ________________________________

Please make checks payable to: “Rossmoor Ladies’ 18-hole Golf League.” Send

check with membership form to: Arlene P. McBride, 352A Old Nassau Road, Monroe Township, NJ 08831, OR place the check with membership form in the Ladies 18-Hole box in the Pro shop.

mailto:[email protected]

mailto:[email protected]


By Diane England

A sense of community.

The feeling of belonging.

These things won’t make us

invincible, but research sug-

gests that when we experi-

ence them, we’re inclined to

live longer, healthier, and

happier lives. Also, when we

feel connected to a suppor-

tive community, we can often

overcome what might seem

like insurmountable circum-

stances.

Can you appreciate why

we might want to feel grati-

tude toward the late real

estate visionary Ross W.

Cortese who is responsible

for the development of

Rossmoor? He wanted our

community to provide the

sense of a New England

village, and so it isn’t sur-

prising that just the physical

layout of Rossmoor pro-

vides more of a sense of

community than some ac-

tive adult communities have

achieved. But Cortese

made another decision that

blessed us in a way other

adult communities have not

been. This was his decision

to build the Meeting House

where people in the imme-

diate community could

come together to worship.

We can also be mighty

grateful that Rossmoor resi-

dents stepped forward to

found the Community Church

in September, 1967. After all,

it took their actions, almost

50 years ago, to give this

vision legs.

You can likely already

appreciate why being part

of a church community

within the larger community

would enhance a person’s

sense of community and

belonging. However, church

members learn something

else which research sug-

gests helps folks to more

effectively cope with chal-

lenges they face. In truth,

through hearing Reverend

Thomson talk about the

people who are on that

week’s prayer list, we’re

becoming aware of the type

of health and other chal-

lenges people are inclined

to face in their later years of

life. As a result, if the time

comes when we face one or

more of these, we’re aware

we’re not unique in our suf-

fering.

This is important because

when people believe their

problems are unique, it’s

easy to adopt detrimental

beliefs such as they are ex-

periencing this challenge

because they have been

marginalized or is less valu-

able or worthy than others,

for example. Sadly, though,

such beliefs feed a victim

mentality which, in turn,

tends to fuel isolation. In

turn, Isolation fuels depres-

sion. Depressed people are

less apt to have the motiva-

tion to strive to overcome

challenges, plus they’re more

susceptible to illness and

accidents.

When you realize others

have faced and overcome

the types of problems you

may find yourself facing, it’s

easier to maintain an attitude

of hope. Hope feeds the de-

sire to persevere and over-

come whatever the challenge

might be. No, you don’t elect

to give up and allow yourself

to succumb to whatever

might come to pass without

intervention.

Can you better appreciate

the value of all of us striving

to engage in actions that

enhance sense of commu-

nity and belonging for all of

us? However, to achieve

this desired goal, we must

all do more than merely

show up for activities. We

must embrace and act upon

the values of the group—

which means we’ll probably

be expected to make some

sacrifices on behalf of the

group through volunteer

Religious OrganizationsReligious OrganizationsReligious Organizations

Mailing Addresses If you are not receiving

mail from Rossmoor, your Mutual, or The Rossmoor News, it may be a matter of our not having your correct mailing address. Many resi-dents, over the years, filed “Winter Address” forms with Administration and failed to specify a return date. If you did not contact us when you returned, it might be possible that we still have an alternate or winter address in our sys-tem.

Please contact Resident Services manager, at 609-655-1000, to verify your address.

roles or reaching out and

helping other members of

our community from time-to

-time, but because of our

participation in this way, we

can then expect others in

our community to offer as-

sistance when we’re in

need.

Remember, it’s a two-way

street. It’s only when you’re

fully invested in the commu-

nity that you can expect to

experience things like the

emotional safety that sense

of community and belonging

can deliver.

If you want to enhance

your own sense of commu-

nity and belonging, and you

aren’t a member of the

Community Church already,

consider joining and be-

coming a member. If you’ve

already attended services,

but do little more than that,

why not make it a resolution

this year to become an ac-

tive member instead? Not

only will you enhance your

own sense of community

and belonging, but you’ll

undoubtedly provide this

gift for others, too. And

frankly, isn’t this something

you could feel good about?

By the way, as you ex-

perience your own sense

of community and belong-

ing growing because of

your active membership in

the Community Church,

please remind yourself of

what those former resi-

dents did for all of us by

founding this church. But

let us also be grateful for

the residents who later

embraced being active

members and thereby en-

sured this institution’s

continued existence. This

has allowed us to enjoy

the Community Church not

only as a place to worship

God, but as a venue for

building sense of commu-

nity and belonging at a

stage of life where feel-

ings of isolation and de-

pression can easily take

hold.

If you decide to join the

Community Church or elect

to become a more active

member than perhaps you’ve

been in the past, give your-

self a pat on the back. After

all, you will be helping to sus-

tain this church for future

residents.

Happy New Year to you

and every member of the

community!

Strengthening that important sense of community and belonging

Grandma & Grandpa, Taking Your Kids to Disney?

FREE DISNEY VACATION PLANNING


the grief of loss of loved ones, of injuries to them and loved ones, and the fear that overwhelms them. For a very short moment in history America was once again united. For a while some of us asked ourselves, “Is it possible that we could be united as we had been dur-ing WW II?” Unfortunately, no.

January 2017 – Now, in the aftermath of the 2016 election, there is, once again, that fear, and it seems that we are even more divided. But now we have another chance. We have a chance to be positive rather than negative. We can come to-gether as we have in the past, for we know that God is still in control. We know that God will lead us – IF we will follow.

By Dierdre Thomson

September 11, 2001 – The Jewish chaplain and I are sitting at the table waiting for what will be my last weekly meeting as Chaplain for the Visiting Nurses of Central Jersey. While waiting for the meeting to begin, people are talking about the news of a plane crashing into one of the towers. Suddenly, a clerk rushes in and tells us that a second plane has hit the tow-ers. Rabbi and I look at each other and, for an instant, are one in knowing and under-standing what has hap-pened. Rabbi leads us in prayer, and we take time for those around the table to speak of their thoughts and concerns.

Then the meeting is can-celled as Rabbi and I leave to serve our congregations – helping them to work through

Jewish Congregation: new activities in January

By Ben Wistreich

Another New Year at the Jewish Congregation—and this one is the 49

th of our

long history. At our last Board Meeting, a small com-mittee was formed to begin planning for our upcoming 50

th anniversary.

The 2017 Calendar of Ac-tivities is now available, and shows the dates of all Jewish Holidays, our meetings, dates of Congregation func-tions and our two very impor-tant Congregation meet-ings— one on Tuesday, May 9, the other on Wednesday., October 18.

The Jewish Men’s and Friends Club will have its traditional fourth New Year’s Lunch Party in January 2017, instead of a few days before New Year’s Eve. We couldn’t fit it in before Hanukkah – so we opted for Wednesday, January 4 at 1 p.m. at the Old Trenton Road Capuano’s. As usual, you will have a com-plete choice of the luncheon menu and daily specials, too. Plus, we will supply red and white wine for everyone – and you will also enjoy soup or salad, beverage, dessert; gra-tuity is also included. Nothing is extra – it is truly all-inclusive. The total cost is $35 (no in-crease). If there is still time make checks payable to Ross-moor Jewish Men’s Club – get your check to Ben Wistreich immediately, then put our 2017 Capuano’s holiday luncheon on your calendar.

Prepare for a great time and lively conversation with your friends and fellow congre-gants.

The January 13 Sabbath Service will have Bob Kolker as Lay Reader and Jeff Albom as Torah Reader. Norm and Judy Perkus will sponsor the January 13 Oneg Shabbat, celebrating their 60

th anniver-

sary! The January 27 Service will have Bob Kolker as Torah Reader and Jeff Albom as the

Looking ahead

Yoo-Hoo, Mrs. Goldberg By Hadassah Aylat

If that sounds familiar, you’ll know that the entertain-ment genius, Gertrude Berg, has come to call. Before Oprah, before Lucy, this re-markable actress rose from being on radio to her box-office smash hit sitcom, a role that brought Gertrude Berg the first Best Actress Emmy in history. Her work paved the way for a wide variety of causes – women in entertainment, Jewish–American identity and actor’s rights - and you’ll meet her via DVD at the next meeting

of the Sisterhood on Mon-day, Jan.16, at 1:30 p.m. in the Gallery.

The program also includes episodes from the sitcom, “The Goldbergs,” interviews with Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, actor Ed Asner, and producer Nor-man Lear (“All in the Fam-ily”), as well as cameo ap-pearances of Anne Bancroft and Steve McQueen.

We’ll also have our deli-cious desserts, and don’t forget to bring non-perishable food for the Food Pantry.

Lay Reader. The Congrega-tion will sponsor these Ser-vices. Those wishing to spon-sor a Sabbath Service should contact co-Gabbai Judy Perkus. Cantor Mary Feinsinger will lead our ser-vices, which begin at 7:45 p.m. in the Meeting House.

The Congregation’s monthly Board Meeting will be held on Tuesday, January 3

at 7 p.m. in the Dogwood

Room.

Molly Goldberg


By Dave Salter

Snow The snow season is upon

us and here are a few re-minders. When a snow storm is predicted, all vehicles must be removed from streets and lanes to make for efficient plowing and safety of work-ers and residents. There is temporary parking at the Clubhouse lot for those who need it. Please be aware of the No Parking when Road is Snow Covered signs in your Mutual. It is imperative that you do not park there; it can hinder snow removal greatly.

Rossmoor Maintenance needs your cooperation dur-ing clean up; all information will be posted on Channel 26 prior to the storm. Rossmoor Maintenance along with snow contractor High Tech will clear all main and front entrance walks, driveways and carports. Please listen to your local weather stations so you are not caught unpre-pared and try to reschedule any doctors’ appointments. Residents with medical con-

ditions that require outside treatments such as, but not limited to, dialysis or chemo-therapy, must register with the Healthcare Center prior to a winter storm emergency to guarantee access for these appointments. Please read the Snow Policy in the Rossmoor News.

Christmas trees Live Christmas trees,

wreaths etc., can be taken to the Clubhouse parking lot and placed in the designated area from January 2 through January 16. No artificial wreaths, bags, wires, hooks, bows, ribbons, etc., will be accepted.

New services available The Maintenance Depart-

ment is pleased to offer these additional services: window replacements, all types of door replacements, dryer vent cleaning, attic In-sulation, and ceramic tile Installation. Please call today for your free estimate.

Happy New Year

HHEALTHEALTH CCAREARE CCENTERENTER NNEWSEWS

MMAINTENANCEAINTENANCE DDEPARTMENTEPARTMENT

Email your news to: [email protected]

summer months. The causes for SAD are unclear, but re-searchers have found the farther north or south of the equator a person lives, the more likely he/she will de-velop SAD. They have found that people who live in areas where there is snow on the ground, for example in the State of Colorado, SAD is found to be less common.

Heredity, stress, and your body’s chemical makeup may also make you more prone to SAD. Women tend to develop it more than men. Researchers theorize the variation in light alters our body’s in ternal c lock (circadian rhythm) that regu-lates our sleep-wake cycle. Decreased sunlight in-creases melatonin, a sleep-related hormone that causes an increase in sleepiness. The shorter daylight hours will also decrease the sero-tonin level (a brain chemical), which also regulates our sleep-wake cycle and con-tributes to winter depression. Researchers feel that if the serotonin level is increased and the melatonin level is decreased, it will help com-bat the symptoms of SAD. Researchers theorize that it may also be genetic. January and February are usually the most difficult months for SAD sufferers. Researchers esti-mate that 10% - 20% of Americans are affected by the winter blues, and more than 10 million people in the United States may be af-fected by SAD. The reason-ing may be the shift of hor-mones, especially in women of child bearing age.

SAD is a cyclic seasonal disorder meaning the symp-toms only occur at a particu-lar time of year and abate at other times. If you have ex-perienced the following signs and symptoms for at least two consecutive years, you may have SAD. This condi-tion is often difficult to diag-nosis because there are dif-ferent types of depressions that may mimic SAD symp-toms. Some of the symptoms may include the following:

Feeling sad, moody, or anxious

Depression

Loss of energy and losing interest in your normal activities

Anxiety

Headaches

Increased sleepiness

Loss of interest in sex

Overeating and craving - especially foods high in carbohydrates such as bread and pasta

Weight gain

Difficulty concentrating and processing information Everyone experiences

days when they are feeling down, but if these feelings last longer than usual, then it is time to see your physician. There are different treat-ments available to treat SAD, which include light therapy (also known as photother-apy), medication, nutrition, exercise, and counseling.

Light therapy is especially beneficial for people with mild symptoms. Researchers theorize that if a person is exposed to increased sunlight, this will decrease the melatonin level and de-crease that sleepy and tired feeling. Several ways to get more sunlight would be to open the blinds to allow more sunlight into your home and to Illuminate your home with brighter light bulbs. Sitting near a sunny window or close to a bright light are also helpful, as is taking a 30-minute walk in the sunshine especially at noon. There are several different styles of phototherapy devices avail-able on the market that pro-vides bright artificial light ther-apy. There is a bright light treatment box and a dawn simulation therapy box. Dawn simulation phototherapy starts with a dim light that turns on while you are sleeping and gets brighter, like a sunrise. Speak with your physician first if you are considering buying a light phototherapy device be-cause they are usually not covered under health insur-ance plans.

Depending on what you are experiencing, your physi-cian may prescribe an anti-depressant to combat the symptoms. Your doctor will decide if this is the right treatment for you.

Nutrition may stimulate serotonin levels. This would include complex carbohy-drates, such as fruits, grains, potatoes, etc., but they should not be taken in ex-cess. One of the signs and symptoms for SAD is carbo-hydrate cravings. If taken in excess, this in turn will lead to winter weight gain.

It is well known that exer-cising will improve one’s mood and self esteem. Exer-cising helps to relieve stress and anxiety, thereby relieving some of the symptoms for SAD sufferers.

Counseling may help to identify negative thoughts. It may also provide insight as how to problem solve and manage stress that may play a role in the signs and symp-toms of SAD.

Although there is no cure for SAD, being aware of the available treatments may


A Message from High Tech Landscapes, Inc.: Our fall cleanup has been

completed. Please tune to Channel 26 daily for more information. (depending on weather)

Please call the East Gate phone and leave a message with any questions or concerns. (609) 655-5134.

Ornamental grasses around the utility boxes and in established beds around the common

facilities have all been trimmed.

Winter pruning will begin this month. (depending on weather)

Street sweeping has been completed.

Please remember to put any debris out front Sunday night for us to pick up Monday morning. High Tech Landscapes

would like to wish you a Happy New Year.

Seasonal Affective Disorder By Kaytie Olshefski BSN, RN-BC

We are now in for the long haul of the winter months. The daylight hours are shorter and the nights are so much longer. Some people are mentally and physically affected by less sunlight in the winter months. We all know about the winter blues, but there is a more severe mood disorder, medically known as seasonal affective disorder (SAD). We know it as winter depression. SAD occurs about the same time each year and the person feels better in the spring and


MONROE TWP. FIRE DISTRICT #3

AT YOUR SERVICE, ANYTIME.

www.mtfd3.com 609 – 409 – 2980

A lot can change in a year’s time. As I look back on my first year as mayor, I am pleased with what has been accomplished including a reduction in the open space tax; miles of pavement and concrete repairs on local and county roads; completion of construction projects at Vet-eran’s Park, Dey Farm, and the Community Garden; ex-pansion of the Monroe Town-ship Memorial Tree Park; and the installation of the generator at the Senior Cen-ter for use as an emergency shelter. We have also broken ground for a new traffic sig-nal at the Federal and Per-rineville Road intersection and provided the funding for the construction of a signal at Matchaponix, Pergola and Spotswood Gravel Hill Roads. It is under design now.

However, one of the most significant changes in 2016 has occurred in the municipal government with the retire-ment of several key Depart-ment Heads and staff mem-bers. Earlier this year, Mu-nicipal Clerk Sharon Doerfler retired after more than 30 years of service to the Mon-roe Township community, expertly handling everything from elections and Council meetings to marriage, food, alcohol beverage, and dog licenses.

The end of the year brings the retirement of two, long-serving department heads—Director of Recreation An-thony Wilcenski and Director of Planning and Environ-mental Protection John Riggs.

Under Tony Wilcenski, the Department of Recreation began almost 30 years ago in a small office in Townhall with just three employees. Over the years it has grown to a staff of 17, serving al-most 5,000 Monroe Town-ship residents in our soccer, baseball, softball, football, cheer, basketball, lacrosse,

From the From the From the

MayorMayorMayor

By Ruth Banks

Sexual assault in the col-lege community will be the topic of the meeting on Janu-ary 23 of the Monroe Twp. League of Women Voters. The subject has been stud-ied by a committee from the state League for the past several months, and local leagues will now be partici-pating in the study with an eye to arriving at a position which will allow the League to advocate for victims as well as for legislation, public awareness, and education programs.

The League meets in the Township Municipal Building at 1 p.m. The meeting is free

and is open to the public. The League undertook this study due to the sense of epidemic proportions and visibility of the problem on the nation’s and New Jer-sey’s campus communities. The study was not confined to “campus” assaults but in-cluded nearby apartments and other facilities fre-quented by students. The scope of the study included the many types of inappropri-ate sexual behavior, the con-cept of “consent,” the role of local law enforcement and campus security and re-sponse.

And finally, the League hopes to discuss the viable

means of prevention and education that could be im-plemented. The members of the League voted to conduct this study in light of the ap-parent increase of campus sexual assaults, not just on college campuses but overall on a national level. Although the meeting is open to the public, only League mem-bers will be participating in the discussion and consen-sus.

The topic for the February 27 meeting will be a talk by noted author and historian John Katerba on the history of the farming community and the growth of the Town-ship.

help to manage and perhaps relieve some of the symp-toms that occur during the winter months.

In our lecture series from Saint Peter’s University Hos-pital, Dr. David Youmans, a vascular and interventional radiologist, will be speaking on “Varicose Veins: Under-standing Vein Disease and Treatment Options” on Janu-ary 9 at 1 p.m. in the Maple Room. If you would like to attend his lecture, please call the Health Care Center at 655-2220 or stop by.

All the Nurses at the Health Care Center wish you and your family a very happy and healthy New Year!


Health Care

Mayor Tamburro recognizes retiring leaders

and adult sport leagues. Ad-ditionally, Recreation hosts almost 1,500 children in summer camp and hosts thousands of residents for special events including the 4th of July Fireworks, Mayor’s Cup, Octoberfest and Grandparents Day. Tony has been instrumental in the development and expansion of the Monroe Township Community Center, parks and recreation fields through-out the township.

John Riggs has worn many hats over the years. He has served the residents of Mon-roe as Director of Planning and Environmental Protec-tion, Tree Conservation Offi-cer, Chairman of the Envi-ronmental Commission, Cul-tural Arts Commissioner, Open Space and Farmland Preservation Commissioner, Municipal Housing Liaison for Affordable Housing, and a member of the Planning Board. John has been an outstanding steward for the environment. He has aggres-sively pursued open space acquisitions, adding to the 6,500 acres of protected open space and another 1,300 acres of preserved farmland.

Riggs has been a propo-nent of spreading environ-mental awareness through-out the community by plant-ing trees with students at our elementary schools and hosting river clean ups in the spring and fall. He also has a “green” thumb, launching the annual Green Fair in 2010, working to make Monroe a Certified Sustainable Jersey community and providing outstanding leadership in the development of the Commu-nity Garden.

John Riggs has done an outstanding job organizing volunteers and resources to push our environmental pro-grams and initiatives forward. We will miss his leadership and enthusiasm.

Monroe has also seen re-tirements in our Police De-partment and Senior Center. Judy Kalman, long-time So-cial Worker will be sorely missed. I appreciate the ser-vice of each of these Direc-tors and employees and wish them well in their retirement.

Monroe’s bravest make “the cut” By Lt. Mike Daley, CFEI: IAAI-FIT

During the first week of December, Fire District #3 delivered School Bus Extrication training to over 80 firefighters from all three fire districts in Monroe and from neighboring departments. Critical skills for gaining access and patient removal from these vehicles were covered in great detail, along with extensive hands-on skill stations utilizing retired school buses which were generously donated by the Monroe Township Board of Education. With over half a million school buses on the roads nationwide, these critical skills will aid in our mission to deliver high quality, efficient and safe service to ALL members of our community.

We would like to formally thank the Monroe Township Board of Education, Logan’s Heavy Duty Towing, and AAA Management, Inc., for their generous contributions of services and ma-terials to ensure our success in this training class.

LWV Monroe Township to probe the rise in sexual assault

January events for Monroe Township Public Library

The Great Courses: The Birth of America

1:00 p.m., Tuesdays, January 3, 10, 17. Brush up on your U.S. history from the Columbus voyage through Tippecanoe in 10 sessions. Topics for January include exploration through an econ-omy of slaves. Two 30-minute DVD lectures each session with brief discussion and light refreshments. Reg-istration is not required. Book Café

11:00 a.m., Wednesday, January 4. Talk about books that you’ve read. Light re-freshments served. Register at the Welcome Desk. Sit -N- Stitch

10:30 a.m., Fridays, Janu-ary 6, 20. Stitch projects; assist others, share tips, pro-jects and patterns. Bring your own supplies. Light refresh-ments served. Registration not required. Poets Corner

11:00 a.m., Friday, Janu-ary 6. Poetry reading group

and workshop for all ages. Stop by to listen or bring ten copies of your poem to share. Registration is not required. Friday Afternoon Movies

2:00 p.m., January 6: Drama about young Jewish atheist collegian in 1950s Ohio, and January 20: Woody Allen comedy about a transplanted New Yorker in 1930s Hollywood. Movies are free. Registration is not required. Current Events Discussion

10:30 a.m., Saturday, January 7. Gina Blume mod-erates a discussion about events in the US and across the globe. Light refreshments served. Register at the Wel-come Desk. Coupon Club

1:30 p.m., Monday, Janu-ary 9. Clip, swap and trade coupons. Discuss deals, share frugal tips and shop-ping experiences. Bring a pair of scissors and your stash of non-expired cou-

pons. Registration is not re-quired. Library Board Meeting

6:30 p.m., Monday, Janu-ary 9 What is Aromatherapy?

1:00 p.m., Wednesday, January 11. Robin Kessler, CA, presents information about how to safely use aro-matherapy to treat ailments including anxiety, stress, al-lergies and more. Register at the Welcome Desk. Genealogy Club

1:30 p.m., Wednesday, January 11. Genealogists of all expertise levels welcome. Registration is not required. The More You Look, the More You See

2:00 p.m., Thursday, Janu-ary 12. Presentation about the creative process and ele-ments of composition from an artist’s perspective to help you during your next mu-seum visit. Register at the Welcome Desk.



walkways during a storm and during the thaw/freeze cycle that typically follows each storm until all the snow/ice has melted. Each resident should consider having a supply of ice melt or grit for their personal use.

COMMUNICATION Fire/Police/First Aid Emergencies ........................... 911

Upon notification of a pending fire, police or first aid emergency requiring emergency personnel, the snow removal staff/contractor on site will make reasonable efforts to clear the road, walkway and/or driveway in the area where emer-gency personnel require access prior to or simultaneous with emer-gency personnel arrival.

In those instances where there is no notification in advance, upon learning of the emergency and/or arrival of emergency personnel, the snow removal staff/contractor on site will make reasonable efforts to clear the road, walkway and/or driveway in the area where emer-gency personnel require access.

Snow Removal Operations Concerns Maintenance Office 655-2121 Monday – Friday 8:30 a.m. – 12:00

noon and 1:00 p.m. – 5:00 p.m. North Gate 655-1868 After hours/evenings/weekends

North Gate personnel may take messages for supervisory staff on site during a winter storm and snow/ice removal operations.

Residents are responsible to leave accurate and pertinent infor-mation.

Snow Removal Operations Updates/

Cancellations/Bus Service Channel 26

Reasonable efforts will be made to keep residents informed during a snow emergency, but it may not always be possible.

RESIDENTS’ RESPONSIBILITY

It is the responsibility of all resi-dents to know and participate in the procedure by moving vehicles to ensure proper and complete snow removal from our streets and car-port lanes. Vehicles should be parked in residents’ assigned car-port spaces or garages. Second vehicles or guests’ vehicles may be parked in the lower level of the Clubhouse parking lot.

It is incumbent upon each resi-

dent to be attentive to the surround-ings and exercise extra care for their safety when walking on exterior surfaces during periods of inclement weather. If it is absolutely necessary to drive during a snow storm, please drive slowly and give snow removal vehicles the right of way.

If residents, their guests or em-ployees use an entrance other than the front entrance walk and/or stoop leading to the main entrance door to their manor, it is the resi-dent’s responsibility to remove the snow and treat the secondary walk and/or stoop for ice.

Snow removal is an arduous and time consuming task. Please be patient. It is best for residents to stay in the safety of their manors. Typically, bus service and most activities are cancelled during a snow/ice storm. For your safety, residents should not approach ac-tive snow removal equipment.

PRIORITIES The safety of Rossmoor resi-

dents is our priority. Supervisory RCAI personnel are on site during snow removal operations to lead staff and the outside snow removal contractor to oversee procedures and respond to emergencies. All main and secondary streets and entrance gates will be plowed con-tinuously to provide emergency access. Sidewalks to the Club House and Meeting House are continuously cleared and the build-ings remain open during snow/ice storms for residents use in case of power outages and/or loss of heat.

Residents with medical condi-tions that require outside treat-ments such as, but not limited to, dialysis or chemotherapy, must register with the Healthcare Center prior to a winter storm emergency to guarantee access for these ap-pointments.

Regular medical/dental appoint-ments, going to work, grocery shopping, filling prescriptions, leav-ing for vacation etc. are not consid-ered priorities and staff will not respond to such requests.

Residents that return to the Community during a winter storm or during storm removal efforts is not considered a priority. Safe access to a resident’s manor may not be possible. It is advisable to check with the North Gate prior to return-ing to be sure snow removal efforts

POLICY When a snow or ice event occurs,

it will be the objective of RCAI to make reasonable efforts to ensure that the 17 miles of roadways and 43 miles of sidewalks within Rossmoor are passable for motorists and pe-destrians as soon as possible, in a safe and efficient manner. The safety of Rossmoor residents is the goal of this policy.

PROCEDURE When a storm is predicted, all

equipment and supplies will be checked and staff as well as the snow removal contractor will be informed of the response plan.

Snowfall accumulations of up to two inches are handled by pre-salting the streets and carport lanes prior to the storm to try and prevent snow/ice from bonding to the sur-face. Salting of the streets and carport lanes will continue as needed. Depending on weather conditions and the forecast, typi-cally, no further action will take place.

Snowfall accumulations of more than two inches, typically, require the initiation of the full snow re-moval operations as follows:

1. Pre-salting streets and carport lanes to prevent snow from bonding to the surface.

2. Plowing all main and secon-dary streets (see list of streets un-der “Priorities”) continuously after an accumulation of 2” or more or as required by RCAI management.

3. Once the storm ends, sepa-rate crews and separate equipment will begin plowing lanes and car-ports; plowing perimeter and main sidewalks; plowing driveways and finally shoveling of the main, front entrance walks and stoops leading to the main entrance doors of the manors. Secondary walks and/or stoops on the sides or backs of manors will not be shoveled or treated with ice melt.

In a typical snow storm (2 to 6 inches of accumulation), it takes approximately 12 hours once the storm ends to complete the full snow removal operation. In the event of a major snow event (6 inches or more) and/or icing condi-tions, it may require more time to complete the full snow removal operation.

4. Once the full snow removal operation is complete, ice melt may be applied to perimeter and main sidewalks and the front en-trances walks and stoops leading to the main entrance doors of the manors depending on accumula-tions, ice conditions, ground and air temperatures and the forecast for the next 24 hours. Reasonable efforts will be made to maintain the perimeter and main sidewalks and the front entrances walks and stoops leading to the main entrance doors of the manors and driveways after each storm and for the days to follow until the conditions clear, but it is impossible to be everywhere all the time. A full ice melt application takes approximately six hours and is not effective in lower tempera-tures and without sunlight. Secon-dary walks and/or on the sides or backs of manors will not be shov-eled or treated with ice melt.

5. Reasonable efforts will be made to rotate the snow plowing schedule of driveways and carport lanes each storm.

Extreme caution should be used if residents must use the

ROSSMOOR COMMUNITY ASSOCIATION, INC. SNOW POLICY AND PROCEDURES

The following 26 main and secondary streets are cleared continu-ously after an accumulation of two or more inches or as required by RCAI management:

Stonaker Road (South Gate to Prospect Plains Road) Gloucester Way Sharon Way Troy Way Mayflower Way Sheldon Way Victoria Court Mt. Vernon Road Spencer Way Waverly Way New Haven Way Springfield Way Windsor Way Newport Way Sussex Way Yale Way Old Nassau Road Sutton Way Yarborough Way Providence Way Terry Lane Yardley Way Revere Way Thurman Lane Rossmoor Drive Tilton Way

The following 51 carport lanes are cleared when the snowfall ceases:

Amherst Lane Mystic Lane Roxbury Lane Bradford Lane Nantucket Lane Salem Lane Concord Lane Narragansett Lane Sanford Lane Dorset Lane Nautilus Court Somerset Lane Emerson Lane New Bedford Lane Stockton Lane Fairfield Lane Northfield Lane Stowe Lane Glenwood Lane Norwich Lane Stratford Lane Greenfield Lane Onset Lane Sturbridge Lane Hanover Lane Orrington Lane Sudbury Lane Lowell Lane Oxford Lane Sunset Circle Madison Lane Pelham Lane Thorton Lane Malden Lane Plymouth Lane Westfield Lane Manchester Lane Portland Lane Westport Lane Marblehead Lane Prescott Lane Winchester Lane Meeting House Lane Putney Lane Wingate Court Middlebury Lane Redding Lane Yorkshire Lane

The Italian American Cultural Society of Monroe Township

By Nancy A Huff

The Italian American Cul-tural Society of Monroe Township, or IACS for short, is a small social group that meets once a month for “partying and pastries.” You definitely must join even if you are not of Italian descent but you must have a love of all things Italian, clothing, food or language. Dues are $15 per person annually.

The next meeting is on Tuesday, January 10 at 7 p.m. at the Monroe Township Senior Center located on Halsey Reed Road. For this meeting, the group will host local historian John Katerba. He will discuss Monroe Township.

Anyone not certain about joining, see the group’s cal-endar of events planned for this year. Contact member-

ship vice president Carole DeStefano at 732-335-8638 if interested. Ciao!

January 10, lecture on Monroe Township

February 14, Valentine's Day celebration

March 14, tea room in Jamesburg

April 11, lecture on Italy

May 9, Mother's Day / Fundraiser for HS (Charity auction)

June 13, Father's Day and pizza

July 11, Independence Day trivia

August 8, Deli and Dessert

September 12, Musical Bingo

October 10, pasta dinner for Columbus Day

November 14, Entertainers

December 12, Christmas Party

Kiwanis Club of Monroe Township is looking to expand its community impact

Kiwanis is a global service organization dedicated to improving the world one child and one community at a time.

The Monroe Township community has been re-ceiving Kiwanis service since 1974, with a focus on serving the needs of chil-dren and seniors. Originally run by residents of the Rossmoor community, the club is now expanding its reach to the entire Monroe Township /Jamesburg com-munity.

The New Jersey District of Kiwanis International would like to invite all resi-dents and business leaders to a “Meet and Greet” to learn more about Kiwanis and how you can make a positive impact in the com-

munity, especially children. Please join us on Wednes-day, January 11 at 6:30 p.m. at the Monroe Town-ship Library, 4 Municipal Plaza, Monroe Township to enjoy fellowship with people f r o m t h e M o n r o e /Jamesburg area who are interested in improving the quality of life for the resi-dents of the community through Kiwanis service. Refreshments wil l be served.

For more information please contact Sue Constan-tine at [email protected], Anthony Af-fatati at [email protected] or call the New Jersey District of Ki-wanis International office at 1-800-396-9194


COMPUTER REPAIR - RJF Sales Company LLC. Is your computer running slow? It may need a tune-up. Desktop and laptop repair in your home. Custom built computers. Virus removal and protection. Mon-roe resident with over 20 years of computer experience. www.monroe-computer.com (732) 723-9537 or (732) 967-3400. January Special – free cordless mouse with service call.

Wanted Wanted

to Buyto Buy BUYING & SELLING GUNS – Call for pricing. (609) 558-9509. Ask for David. Licensed Firearms Dealer.

Tax Preparation/Tax Preparation/

ServicesServices CPA – Taxes prepared in the comfort of your home. Rea-sonable rates. Rebecca (732) 718-4359.

Help & Health Help & Health

ServicesServices ANNA’S HOME CARE – Cer-tified professional caregiver is looking for live-in/live-out job in Monroe Township. Experi-enced, references. Driver’s license. Accepts long-term care insurance. Low prices. Private care option. Call Anna at (609) 409-1600 or (908) 337-7462. CERTIFIED HOME HEALTH AIDE – Certified Home Health Aide who wants to provide private home care. Available for hourly or live-in. Call Bea-trice (609) 510-6631. AT ANGEL TOUCH HOME CARE we provide excellent care for elderly and we make sure that we have the best qualified workers for the job. We are a company that cares for our patients and makes sure they are treated by the best. 24-hour care (living with resident). Elderly companion-ship. Call (609) 907-6059. CARING ELDER CARE – Want to live independently? Two hours a day may be all you need. We’re experienced. We’re flexible. We’re here to he lp . (646) 413-0813. www.CaringElderCare.com WILL PROVIDE the following services at a reasonable rate: caregiving, cooking, cleaning, laundry, errands and compan-ionship. References available. Trustworthy, personable, easy to get along with. Please call Judy Radice for further details (609) 510-1736.

Housecleaning Housecleaning

ServicesServices NICE JEWISH GIRL’S HOUSE CLEANING and Health Aide Service. Over 20 years experience. Low rates. Insured and bonded. Call Ei-leen at (609) 860-9050.

HOUSE CLEANING to clean your home expertly and thor-oughly. References, honest, courteous and experienced. Reyna (609) 371-4775. You’ll be glad you called. HOUSE CLEANING with ref-erences. Call Nancy (609) 273-2867. IZABELA’S CLEANING SER-VICE - Professional house cleaning. Quality work. Refer-ences available. Reasonable. 2 bedroom/2 bath, $65 and up. Experienced. Free estimates. (609) 954-0181 or (609) 656-9281. HENRYKA’S HOUSE CLEANING – Polish ladies, reliable and experienced. Ref-erences available. Call (609) 586-0806.

Library Foundation Meeting

7:00 p.m., Thursday, Janu-ary 12 Nonfiction Book Discussion

With Irene Goldberg ON 10:30 a.m., Friday, January 13. Discuss “The Magic of Reality” by Richard Dawkins. Register and reserve your copy at the Welcome Desk. International Book Club

10:30 a.m., Tuesday, January 17. D iscuss “Sweetland” by Michael Crummey. Register and re-serve your copy at the Wel-come Desk. Singing Crystal Bowl Meditation

6:30 p.m., Tuesday, Janu-ary 17. Donna Sica leads a session for ages 16 and older to relax, recharge and


rejuvenate through the har-monic sounds of vibrations of singing bowls. Register through the Library’s Web-site. Coloring for Adults

1:30 p.m., Thursday, Janu-ary 19. Stimulate your senses and creativity with coloring. Light refreshments and all supplies provided. Registration is not required. Cardiac Health and Screening

12:00 p.m., Tuesday, January 24. Blood pressure and cholesterol screening on a first come, first served ba-sis from 12:00-1:00 p.m., followed by Dr. Eran Zacks presentation of causes, symptoms and treatments of cardiac arrhythmias. Co-sponsored by Princeton HealthCare System Commu-nity Education. Register at the Welcome Desk. Lunch with Friends 2017

Presented by The Friends: Getting Started in Genealogy 12:00 p.m., Wednesday, January 25. Reference Li-brarian Lauren Uslan pre-sents online resources to get your started on your family history. Registration is not required. Fine Arts Gallery

Paintings by Tatiana Rodionova Library Closings: Saturday, Sunday, January 1 Monday, January 2 Monday, January 16 All events are open to the public. www.monroetwplibrary.org

TRANSPORTATION TIDBITS Important phone numbers: Rossmoor Bus .......................................... 609-655-4401

Hours 10:00 -11:00 a.m. and 2:30 p.m.- 4:00 p.m.

Monroe Township Transportation ............ 609-443-0511

Middlesex County

Area Transportation (MCAT) ................ 1-800-221-3520

St. Peter’s University Hospital

On Time Transportation ....................... 1-800-858-8463

All schedules are available outside the E&R office

(near the copy machine) or via the Web at www.rossmoor-

nj.com and following the links Facilities, Clubhouse and

Activities, and Bus Info.

Classified Advertising

TransportationTransportation CALL DOREEN – I’m back! My new number is (609) 284-4308. Thank you. RIDES FOR CASH BY BOB – Affordable rates for rides to the airport, doctor appointments, groceries, school, restaurants, work. Cheaper than Uber or Lyft. Robert Lande, driver. (609) 664-6558. NAT TRANSPORTATION – Monroe resident. All airports, shipyards, NYC and local. Doctor and hospital visits. (917) 657-5611. LIMO GUY, INC. – Our 15th year. We go to all airports. Late model Lincoln Towncars. Holds four passengers in total comfort and style. $90 to New-ark Airport. We go anywhere. Call (732) 452-9222, 24/7. E X P E R I E N C E D L I M O DRIVER – NYC, airports, any-where. Former Clearbrook resident. Call John (732) 610-0703.

Home Home

Improvement & Improvement &

ServicesServices RELIABLE HANDYMAN SERVICES – Local resident. No job too small. All labor guaranteed. Call me to discuss – no obligation. Reasonable rates. Call (609) 409-7096 or (908) 385-5869. MIKE THE HANDYMAN – See my display ad in this edi-tion. (732) 780-0468.

Wanted to RentWanted to Rent CARPORT NEEDED – Willing to pay $30 per month for a spot near the meeting house. (609) 902-5583.

Miscellaneous/Miscellaneous/

ServicesServices ENTERTAINMENT FOR MEETINGS, EVENTS. Gordon James trumpet, vocals. (732) 7 7 1 - 3 9 7 2 . g o r d o n [email protected] HAVE SCISSORS, WILL TRAVEL – All hairdressing services. Will come to your home. Licensed hairdresser. Call Georgianne (732) 985-8129. ALT ERATIONS/SEWING NEEDS – I can come to you. Joan (609) 655-4363. PET SITTER/DOG WALKER - A true animal lover. Barb (732) 735-4243. TECH BUDDY – Simple step-by-step help with smart-phones, computers, tablets and more. Large print solu-tions for low tech problems. ? Real Beginner to Advanced. Patience and enthusiasm in-cluded. Wireless printers, Net-flix, Roku – setup and training. Free quote. (732) 589-4974. [email protected]

Library

Senior Center Highlights 12 Halsey Reed Road, Monroe Township, NJ 609-448-7140

Bagels Plus: On Friday, January 6, at 10 a.m., join Linda, from The Gardens at Monroe, for bagels and smear as she and Sheli, from Caring Connections, discuss “Life Hacks to Simplify Your Life”.

Matter of Balance: Start-ing on Friday, January 6, and meeting for a total 8-sessions on Mondays and Fridays (January 6, 9, 13, 20, 23, 27, 30, and February 3) from 2 to 4 p.m., this award-winning program is designed to empower older adults with practical strategies to man-age falls and to make life-style changes to improve balance. Interested partici-pants must commit to the eight dates listed. Space lim-ited.

Creating the Life You Deserve Workshop: On Thursday, January 12, from 1:30 to 3:30 p.m., join Gemma Nastasi, Health Coach, for this interactive workshop to learn how to make 2017 the year of posi-tive change. Discover the tools of positive psychology to live your best life as you create your own personal-ized positivity plan.

Drivers’ Safety Program: On Tuesday, January 17, at 8:45 a.m., enhance your driv-ing skills by attending AARP’s drivers’ safety class. For more information, please call the Center.


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VOLUME 53 / No. 1 Monroe Township, New Jersey January …todians who received a 1.2% increase....

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